Bats Word Search

The words of a bat's world: its wings and its roost, its echoes and its food.

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Bats Word Search

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0 of 15 words found

WTTZRDAWPPWVNGO

RCLJOEARSTWIFIB

DECHOLOCATIONAT

WEJDSFREAINRFRN

ICXITULFLIGHTCL

NOCTURNALSMTLEB

GLHPPONCUHEJNCE

SOFACLEBJBMOTHS

DNRLSPCAVEBNAEZ

YYUADATWCMRFSCN

CQIAGFAENAAGAME

GLTBIPRYESNUOOE

FOBEXLUUPHEASIN

HVAMPIRESWENPPW

EOTTWCHFAAEOGEX

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

Fruit BatFRUIT BAT
VampireVAMPIRE
Wing MembraneWING MEMBRANE
WingsWINGS
EarsEARS
FurFUR
EcholocationECHOLOCATION
NocturnalNOCTURNAL
RoostROOST
ColonyCOLONY
CaveCAVE
FlightFLIGHT
MothsMOTHS
NectarNECTAR
GuanoGUANO

15 of 24 words from the Bat Favorites list.

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Answer key: Bats Word Search

WTTZRDAWPPWVNGO

RCLJOEARSTWIFIB

DECHOLOCATIONAT

WEJDSFREAINRFRN

ICXITULFLIGHTCL

NOCTURNALSMTLEB

GLHPPONCUHEJNCE

SOFACLEBJBMOTHS

DNRLSPCAVEBNAEZ

YYUADATWCMRFSCN

CQIAGFAENAAGAME

GLTBIPRYESNUOOE

FOBEXLUUPHEASIN

HVAMPIRESWENPPW

EOTTWCHFAAEOGEX

FRUIT BAT, VAMPIRE, WING MEMBRANE, WINGS, EARS, FUR, ECHOLOCATION, NOCTURNAL, ROOST, COLONY, CAVE, FLIGHT, MOTHS, NECTAR, GUANO

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All 112 words

Kinds of Bats 18

Bulldog The greater ___ bat hunts fish, grabbing them from the water with its clawed feet.
Bumblebee The ___ bat of Thailand and Myanmar, also called the hog-nosed bat, is the smallest bat of all.
Flying Fox The largest bats of all. The nickname comes from a face with a long snout and ears.
Free Tailed The Mexican ___ bat can reach 160 kilometers an hour, and it roosts in the millions.
Fruit Bat A flying mammal of the tropics named for its main food. It finds ripe meals by sight and smell, not by echoes.
Ghost The ___ bat of northern Australia hunts birds, reptiles and other mammals from a perch.
Hoary A bat whose dark fur has white tips, which gives it a frosted look. It mostly lives alone.
Horseshoe Bats named for the shape of the front of the nose-leaf, curved like the iron on a hoof.
Leaf Nosed New World ___ bats are the family with the most varied diet: fruit, nectar, insects, frogs, even blood.
Long Eared The brown ___ bat is slow in flight and plucks insects from leaves.

Show all 112 words (102 more)

Kinds of Bats, continued

Megabat One of the large-eyed bats of warm parts of Africa, Asia and Oceania. Most eat fruit, and several feed on nectar.
Microbat The traditional name for the smaller bats that find their way by echolocation.
Myotis The mouse-eared bats. The little brown bat is one of them.
Noctule A bat of Europe, Asia and North Africa. The greater kind catches birds in flight.
Pallid A bat found from western Canada to central Mexico. In great heat it cools off by panting and licking its fur.
Pipistrelle A kind of bat whose name comes from the Italian word for bat.
Rousette A fruit bat that echolocates in its own way, by clicking its tongue.
Vampire The only bats that feed on blood. The three kinds live in Central and South America.

A Bat's Body 22

Calcar A spur of cartilage at the ankle that helps spread the skin between a bat's tail and hind legs.
Claws Sharp, hooked nails. The greater bulldog bat grabs fish with the ones on its feet.
Ears Ridges inside a bat's help to focus the echoes of its calls.
Fangs Long, pointed teeth. Bats that eat hard-shelled insects have long canines.
Feet A resting bat hangs upside down from these.
Fingers Four long ones on each hand hold the skin of a bat's wing tight.
Forearm The part of the arm between the elbow and the wrist. On a bat it is part of the wing.
Fur The hair that covers a bat's body. Pollen sticks to it when a bat feeds at a flower.
Heart An active small bat's can beat 1000 times a minute.
Knees On a flying bat these point upward and outward.
Lungs A bat's are large for its size, to meet the needs of flight.
Nose Leaf A fleshy growth on the snout of some bats that plays a part in sending out sound.
Patagium The scientific name for the skin of a bat's wing.
Snout The front of the face: long on a flying fox, short on a vampire bat.
Tail Some bats have a free one, some have one joined to the wing skin, and some have none.
Teeth A small insect-eating bat can have 38 of these, and a vampire bat as few as 20.
Tendons Tough cords that join muscle to bone. They let a bat hang from its roost with no effort.
Thumb The digit that sticks out at the front of a bat's wing and holds its leading edge.
Tongue A nectar-feeding bat has a long one covered in fine bristles.
Tragus A flap of skin in the outer ear that helps a bat judge how high its target is.
Wing Membrane The thin skin a bat flies on. It runs from the arm and the finger bones back to the body and the hind legs.
Wings A bat's are its hands: thin skin stretched over very long finger bones.

Echolocation and Senses 15

Calls A bat makes these to find prey, attract a mate or defend food. Some are louder than 140 decibels.
Compass Microbats sense Earth's magnetic field and use it like this tool to tell north from south.
Darkness Echoes let a bat find prey in this.
Echoes Sounds that bounce back. A bat compares them with its own call to learn what is ahead.
Echolocation Finding the way, and food, by making sounds and listening for what bounces back.
Eyesight No bat is truly blind, and megabats generally have a good sense of this.
Frequency How high a sound is, in hertz. Bat calls range from 11 to 212 kilohertz.
Hearing A bat's is sharp enough to pick up the flutter of a moth's wings.
Heat Vampire bats can sense this with sensors around the nose. No other mammal is known to.
Jamming Some tiger moths make sounds that do this to a bat's echolocation.
Larynx The voice box, where a microbat makes its calls.
Navigate To find the way. Microbats do it by echolocation.
Smell The sense that helps a megabat find ripe fruit.
Songs Male Mexican free-tailed bats sing these, made of chirps, trills and buzzes.
Ultrasound Sound pitched too high for people to hear, which echolocating bats send out.

How Bats Live 25

Bat The only mammal that can truly fly.
Bridge More than a million bats roost under one on Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas.
Cave A hollow in rock where many bats roost and pass the winter.
Colony A group of bats that roost together. Some hold millions.
Crevice A narrow crack, one kind of bat roost.
Dusk The dim time after sunset. Mexican free-tailed bats leave their caves around then.
Flight Bats are the only mammals that can keep this up, not just glide.
Grooming Cleaning the fur. Common vampire bats do it for each other.
Hibernaculum A winter shelter, such as a cave or an old mine, where animals hibernate.
Hibernate To pass the winter in a deep, energy-saving rest, as bats of cool places do.
Hover To stay in one spot in the air, as nectar-eating bats can do at a flower.
Lifespan How long an animal lives. One wild bat was caught again after 41 years.
Mammal A warm-blooded animal with hair that feeds its young on milk. About one kind in five is a bat.
Maternity A ___ colony is a group of mother bats raising their young together.
Migrate To travel with the seasons. Some bats fly to winter caves and mines.
Mine Tunnels dug for ore. Bats winter in old ones as they do in caves.
Night When most bats are awake and feeding.
Nocturnal Active at night, as most bats are.
Owl A night bird of prey that hunts bats.
Pup A baby bat. Most mothers have just one at a time.
Roost The place where a bat rests, and the word for hanging there.
Swarm Bats of cool places may gather like this at hibernation sites as autumn comes.
Tents Shelters that some bats make for themselves out of leaves.
Torpor A resting state in which a bat lets its body cool and uses 50 to 99 percent less energy.
Upside Down How a bat hangs when it rests.

What Bats Eat 20

Agave A spiky desert plant that bats pollinate.
Beetles Hard-shelled insects that many bats eat.
Blood The only food of the three kinds of vampire bat. They lap it up; they do not suck.
Fertilizer Something added to soil to help plants grow. Bat guano is one kind.
Fish Food for a few bats, which fly over water and grab it with their feet.
Flowers Those that bats pollinate tend to open at night.
Frogs The fringe-lipped bat finds these by tracking their mating calls.
Fruit Megabats like it ripe, and often carry it away from the tree to eat.
Guano Bat droppings. People have mined them from caves to use as fertilizer.
Insects The food of most bats: flies, moths, beetles and more.
Mosquito A biting insect that some bats prey on.
Moths Night-flying insects. Some can hear a bat coming and dodge.
Nectar The sweet liquid in a flower, which some bats lap with long tongues.
Pests Insects that harm crops. Bats eat so many that farmers need less spray.
Pollen A flower's powder. It sticks to a feeding bat's fur and rides to the next flower.
Pollinator An animal that carries pollen between flowers. Around 500 kinds of flowering plant rely on bats.
Prey An animal that is hunted for food.
Saguaro A tall cactus of the deserts of the American Southwest. Bats are among its main pollinators.
Seeds Fruit-eating bats spread these, and many plants depend on it.
Spiders Eight-legged prey that some bats eat.

Bats and People 12

Bat House A box that people put up to give bats a place to roost.
Chiroptera The scientific name for the bats, from Greek words meaning hand and wing.
Flittermouse An old English dialect name for a bat, like the German Fledermaus.
Fossil Remains of ancient life kept in rock. The oldest complete bat skeletons, 52 million years old, were found in Wyoming.
Fungus A living thing such as a mold. One has killed millions of bats in North America.
Habitat The kind of place where an animal lives. Bats use coasts, mountains, rainforests and deserts.
Protected Kept safe by law, as all bats are in the United Kingdom.
Rodents The only order of mammals with more species than the bats.
Species A kind of living thing. At least 1,500 are bats.
Texas The U.S. state that named the Mexican free-tailed bat its official flying mammal in 1995.
Turbine A wind ___ makes electricity. Bats are found dead near the spinning blades.
White Nose ___ syndrome is a disease of hibernating bats, named for a pale fungus on the muzzle and wings.

How this list was compiled: 112 bat words in six lists, from kinds of bats to bats and people. Facts in the clues were checked on October 16, 2026 against English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/, CC BY-SA 4.0), chiefly its Bat article, and against the U.S. Geological Survey's answers on bats (https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-do-bats-eat). This site is not affiliated with the Survey. Licence: own work

How it works

This bats word search opens on 15 words, with Echolocation, Roost, Colony, Wing Membrane, Fruit Bat, Nocturnal and Guano among them. Six lists wait behind it, 112 bat words in all, each with a one-line fact.

Read the full guide

Free printable word searches about bats, list by list

Kinds of Bats has 18 words, from Vampire and Flying Fox to Bumblebee, the smallest bat of all. A Bat's Body has 22, such as Wing Membrane, Tragus and Calcar. Echolocation and Senses has 15, How Bats Live 25, What Bats Eat 20, and Bats and People 12, with Flittermouse, an old dialect name for a bat. Each list prints as a sheet of its own with its key.

An easy sheet and a hard one

Easy Bats keeps to 41 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Cave, Pup, Wings and Moths. Hard Bats has 34 long ones, Hibernaculum and Pipistrelle among them.

The grid drops spaces, so look for FRUITBAT and WINGMEMBRANE.
Bat itself is in Easy Bats, not in the first grid: BAT reads inside FRUITBAT, so the two never share a list.

Questions and answers

Are bats blind?

No. The U.S. Geological Survey says bats have small eyes with very sensitive vision, which helps them see in conditions people would call pitch black. Megabats find fruit by sight and smell, and microbats add echolocation.

Is a bat a bird or a mammal?

A mammal. A bat has fur and a mother nurses her pup. Bats are the only mammals capable of true, sustained flight, and about one in five kinds of mammal is a bat, with at least 1,500 species known.

What do bats eat?

Most eat insects: the Geological Survey calls bats the most significant predators of night-flying insects. Others eat fruit, nectar or pollen, a few catch fish or frogs, and the three kinds of vampire bat lap blood.

Why do bats hang upside down?

It is how a bat rests, and it costs no effort: tendons keep the bat hanging, and it works only to let go. Wikipedia's Bat article adds that a bat is too small and light for blood to rush to its head.

All 112 words

Kinds of Bats 18

Kinds of Bats, continued

A Bat's Body 22

Echolocation and Senses 15

How Bats Live 25

What Bats Eat 20

Bats and People 12

How it works

Free printable word searches about bats, list by list

An easy sheet and a hard one

Questions and answers

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