Boston Tea Party Word Search Printable

Print 15 Boston Tea Party words in one grid, with the answer key on a second page.

Name Date

Boston Tea Party Word Search

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 15 words found

FQDAIBMFAEWNPHB

WDIOBOHARBORUTH

EPSVSSEPPRRRHEC

CHGEMTPATRIOTAB

AUURUOFRNWRCECB

RBIBGNTLHGSOAHU

GOSOGSHIPLELAEI

OYEALEVARTCOCSS

FCORESKMOSSNTTE

UORDRSOETAXIWZZ

ETIBAEZNENESHBS

OTCROSCTSFFTATW

NABNALHHTSPURCT

OHMJAPAERDLDFSE

NOTLUECYGPRWMDB

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.

HarborHARBOR
Tea ChestTEA CHEST
WharfWHARF
CargoCARGO
OverboardOVERBOARD
DisguiseDISGUISE
TaxTAX
Tea ActTEA ACT
ParliamentPARLIAMENT
SmugglerSMUGGLER
BoycottBOYCOTT
BostonBOSTON
ColonistCOLONIST
ProtestPROTEST
PatriotPATRIOT

15 words from the Boston Tea Party list.

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Answer key: Boston Tea Party Word Search

FQDAIBMFAEWNPHB

WDIOBOHARBORUTH

EPSVSSEPPRRRHEC

CHGEMTPATRIOTAB

AUURUOFRNWRCECB

RBIBGNTLHGSOAHU

GOSOGSHIPLELAEI

OYEALEVARTCOCSS

FCORESKMOSSNTTE

UORDRSOETAXIWZZ

ETIBAEZNENESHBS

OTCROSCTSFFTATW

NABNALHHTSPURCT

OHMJAPAERDLDFSE

NOTLUECYGPRWMDB

HARBOR, TEA CHEST, WHARF, CARGO, OVERBOARD, DISGUISE, TAX, TEA ACT, PARLIAMENT, SMUGGLER, BOYCOTT, BOSTON, COLONIST, PROTEST, PATRIOT

Next step Make a puzzle from your own Revolution unit words Scramble these Boston Tea Party words

All 64 words

Ships and Tea 18

Beaver One of the three ships, named after an animal that builds dams.
Bohea A leaf from the Wuyi Mountains, the most common kind sold in the colonies.
Captain The officer in command of a ship.
Cargo Everything loaded on a ship to be delivered and sold.
China The country where every leaf in the chests was grown.
Dartmouth The first of the three ships to arrive, on November 28, 1773, with 114 chests.
December The month of the protest, which took place on the night of the 16th in 1773.
Deck The open floor of a ship.
Disguise Clothes worn to hide who you are. Many of the men dressed as Mohawk people so nobody could name them.
Eleanor One of the two ships that tied up beside the first by December 15.
Harbor Sheltered water where ships anchor. The cargo of three ships went into Boston's.
Hatches The covered openings in a deck. A diary of that night says the men opened them to hoist out the chests.
Merchantman A trading ship. All three that were boarded were this kind, not warships.
Overboard Over the side of a ship and into the water.
Pounds Units of weight. The leaves lost that night weighed 92,616 of them.
Tea Chest A wooden box of dried leaves for brewing. The men emptied 340 or 342 of them.
Three Hours How long the men took to empty every chest on the ships that night.
Wharf A landing place where ships tie up. The three ships lay at Griffin's.

Show all 64 words (46 more)

Taxes and Trade 18

Boycott Refusing to buy something as a protest. Many colonists pledged to stop drinking British leaves.
Consignee A merchant picked to receive the company's chests and sell them for a share of the price.
Customs The officers who collect what is owed on goods at a port. They could seize a ship that did not pay.
Dutch People of the Netherlands, whose untaxed leaves were slipped into the colonies and sold cheaply.
Duty A charge on goods as they enter a port. Each ship had to pay it within twenty days of arriving.
East India The two words that name the British trading company whose chests were destroyed.
Import To bring goods into a country to sell.
London The British capital, where the company's warehouses were full in 1773.
Merchant A trader who earns a living by buying goods and selling them on.
Monopoly Being the only seller allowed. One British company had held this on bringing in the leaves since 1698.
Parliament Britain's lawmakers in London, who kept the three-pence charge on each pound of leaves.
Pence British pennies. Three of them were charged on every pound of leaves landed in the colonies.
Revenue The money a government takes in.
Smuggler Someone who brings goods in secretly to avoid paying on them. Many sold cheap Dutch leaves.
Surplus More than is needed. In spring 1773 the company had far more leaves on hand than it could sell.
Tax Money that a government collects from people on what they buy or earn.
Tea Act Law of May 10, 1773, meant to let one British company undersell the smugglers in America.
Townshend Name on the laws of 1767 that put a charge on glass, lead, paints, paper and tea.

Boston in 1773 16

Boston The port town in Massachusetts where it happened, home to about 16,000 people.
Colonist A person living in one of Britain's settlements in America.
Crowd A large number of people gathered in one place.
Deadline The last day allowed. For the first ship it was December 16, 1773.
Faneuil Hall Where the meeting of November 29, 1773, began before the crowd grew too big for the room.
Governor The king's chief officer in the colony, who would not let the ships sail home without paying.
Loyalist A colonist who stayed true to the king.
Old South The meeting house where thousands gathered on December 16 before the walk to the water.
Patriot A colonist who stood against British rule.
Protest Something done to show that people object.
Representation Having someone to speak and vote for you where laws are made. The colonists had none in London.
Rights Things every person is owed by law. Colonists said theirs were the same as those of people in England.
Secret Something kept hidden, as the men kept their names.
Sons of Liberty The group, active since 1765, that planned and carried out the protest.
Treason The crime of betraying your country. That is what the British government called the protest.
Watchmen Guards. The mass meeting set 25 men at the waterside to see that no chest was unloaded.

After the Tea Party 12

Cape Cod Where a fourth ship bound for Boston, the William, ran aground in December 1773.
Congress The meeting of the colonies called in Philadelphia in 1774 to answer Britain's punishment.
Courage Bravery. "Keep up your ___," Patriots urged the town afterward.
Destruction Ruin. For about sixty years people called the event simply the "___ of the tea".
Empire Many lands under one ruler.
Legend A famous story handed down from the past.
Lexington One of the two Massachusetts towns where the fighting began on April 19, 1775.
Party The playful word in the name we use today, first seen in print in 1834.
Philadelphia The city where, nine days later, a ship loaded with chests was sent back to England still full.
Punish To make someone pay for a wrong. In 1774 Britain set out to do this to the whole town.
Reimburse To pay someone back. The harbor was to stay shut until the company got its money.
Revolution The struggle that turned thirteen colonies into the United States. War began in April 1775.

How this list was compiled: Own work: the 64 words and every clue were written for this page. Dates, ships and numbers were checked on October 9, 2026 against the Massachusetts Historical Society's page on the Boston Tea Party (https://www.masshist.org/revolution/teaparty.php) and English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Act, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townshend_Acts and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_Liberty. Licence: own work

How it works

This Boston Tea Party word search printable hides 15 words, among them Harbor, Tea Chest, Wharf, Overboard, Tea Act and Smuggler. Four more lists cover the ships, the tax, the town and what came after.

Read the full guide

Ships, taxes, the town and the aftermath

Start from a list splits the 64 words: Ships and Tea (18) names the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver; Taxes and Trade (18) runs from Duty and Pence to Monopoly and Consignee; Boston in 1773 (16) has Old South and Faneuil Hall; After the Tea Party (12) ends at Lexington.

The year is in the meanings, not the grid

A letter grid cannot hide 1773, so the dates sit in the one-line meanings: "The month of the protest, which took place on the night of the 16th in 1773." is December. No person is a puzzle word; type a name from your unit on the last line of the list to add it.

Easy Boston Tea Party keeps to 11 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Tax, Deck, Cargo and Wharf.
The grid drops spaces, so look for TEACHEST, TEAACT, SONSOFLIBERTY and CAPECOD.

Questions and answers

When was the Boston Tea Party?

On the night of December 16, 1773, at Griffin's Wharf in Boston. Over about three hours, men boarded three ships and emptied their tea into the harbor.

How many chests of tea were thrown into Boston Harbor?

340 or 342, depending on the source; the Massachusetts Historical Society gives 342. The tea weighed 92,616 pounds, and the East India Company put its worth at 9,659 British pounds.

What were the three ships of the Boston Tea Party?

The Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver. The Dartmouth reached Boston on November 28, 1773, and the other two lay beside it at Griffin's Wharf by December 15.

What happened after the Boston Tea Party?

Parliament closed the port of Boston from June 1, 1774, and passed further laws that came to be called the Intolerable Acts. For that week of the unit, print the Intolerable Acts word search.

All 64 words

Ships and Tea 18

Taxes and Trade 18

Boston in 1773 16

After the Tea Party 12

How it works

Ships, taxes, the town and the aftermath

The year is in the meanings, not the grid

Questions and answers

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