Bridge Word Search Printable

A bridge vocabulary sheet with its key: types, parts, truss members and the forces they carry.

Name Date

Bridge Word Search

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

0 of 20 words found

GLTAAAVSANRAHKB

MOOYBPIERFAANEE

IAWIUDACHORDDYA

XDETTEDEZUCRZSM

TRRUMCUHDNHGDTN

GTSWEKCSIDAIHON

BLLFNUTPEAERFNN

AOADTUCAHTIDUEB

UTOPVCANTILEVER

CRESTENSIONRTOI

SUSPENSIONTSAOD

NSSZXEYOSDBKAIG

ZSLALCGEEWSBDOE

YCOMPRESSIONSTT

ECABLEUXWIARWIT

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.

BeamBEAM
ArchARCH
TrussTRUSS
SuspensionSUSPENSION
CantileverCANTILEVER
GirderGIRDER
ViaductVIADUCT
DeckDECK
SpanSPAN
PierPIER
AbutmentABUTMENT
TowerTOWER
CableCABLE
KeystoneKEYSTONE
FoundationFOUNDATION
ChordCHORD
TensionTENSION
CompressionCOMPRESSION
LoadLOAD
BridgeBRIDGE

20 words from the Bridge Key Terms list.

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Easy: words go across and down.

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Word list

Large print Lower-case letters Name and date line on paper

The puzzle changes as you go. See the puzzle

Answer key: Bridge Word Search

GLTAAAVSANRAHKB

MOOYBPIERFAANEE

IAWIUDACHORDDYA

XDETTEDEZUCRZSM

TRRUMCUHDNHGDTN

GTSWEKCSIDAIHON

BLLFNUTPEAERFNN

AOADTUCAHTIDUEB

UTOPVCANTILEVER

CRESTENSIONRTOI

SUSPENSIONTSAOD

NSSZXEYOSDBKAIG

ZSLALCGEEWSBDOE

YCOMPRESSIONSTT

ECABLEUXWIARWIT

BEAM, ARCH, TRUSS, SUSPENSION, CANTILEVER, GIRDER, VIADUCT, DECK, SPAN, PIER, ABUTMENT, TOWER, CABLE, KEYSTONE, FOUNDATION, CHORD, TENSION, COMPRESSION, LOAD, BRIDGE

Next step Print the other structures engineers build Type in the parts of your own model bridge

All 122 words

Types of Bridges 25

Aqueduct A bridge built to carry a watercourse across a valley or ravine.
Arch A curved structure that passes its load outward to the supports at its ends.
Bascule A movable bridge whose span swings upward, balanced by a counterweight.
Beam The simplest bridge: a straight piece resting on a support at each end.
Cable-stayed The bridge type held up by stays that run straight from a tower to the deck.
Cantilever A structure held at one end only, so that it projects out into space.
Clapper An ancient bridge of large flat stone slabs, some resting on stone piers.
Covered Describes a wooden truss bridge roofed and sided to shield it from weather.
Drawbridge A movable crossing of the kind that guards the gate of a castle with a moat.
Footbridge A crossing made only for people walking.
Girder A main horizontal beam that holds up the deck of a bridge.
Humpback An arch bridge whose deck follows the curve, rising to a high middle.
Lift The movable bridge whose span rises straight up and stays level.
Log A tree trunk laid across a stream: the simplest beam bridge of all.

Show all 122 words (108 more)

Types of Bridges, continued

Moon A highly arched footbridge first built in China and tied to its gardens.
Movable Describes any bridge that shifts to let boats or barges through.
Overpass A bridge that carries one road or railway over another.
Pontoon The bridge type that rests on floats or shallow boats.
Rope Simple suspension bridges were made of this or of vines.
Suspension The bridge type whose deck hangs from cables strung between towers.
Swing The movable bridge that turns sideways on a pivot to let boats pass.
Toll The fee charged to cross some bridges.
Trestle A bridge of many short spans on closely spaced frames, usually for a railroad.
Truss A rigid frame of straight members, usually joined in triangles.
Viaduct A long bridge of many arches or piers that carries a road or railway across a valley.

Parts of a Bridge 25

Abutment The support at each end of a bridge, which also holds back the earth behind it.
Anchorage The structure at each end of a suspension bridge that resists the pull of the cables.
Approach The stretch of road, often on packed earth, that leads onto a bridge.
Bearing The part between a pier and the deck that lets the bridge move a little.
Cable A thick rope of twisted steel wires that holds up a hanging deck.
Caisson A watertight structure used to build the foundation of a pier in water.
Clearance The open room under a bridge that lets boats pass.
Counterweight The heavy mass that balances the moving span of a bascule bridge.
Crown The highest point of an arch.
Deck The surface of a bridge, where the traffic crosses.
Footing A part of the foundation under a pier or an abutment.
Foundation The base that passes the weight of a bridge into the ground.
Hanger An upright cable or rod that links the roadway to the main cable above.
Joint With "expansion", a gap that lets a bridge grow and shrink as it warms and cools.
Keystone The wedge-shaped top stone of an arch, set last, that locks the rest in place.
Leaf The moving span of a bascule bridge; there may be one or two.
Parapet A low wall along the edge of a bridge.
Pier A support between the two ends of a bridge that holds up the deck.
Piling A long post sunk deep into the ground to hold up a foundation.
Pylon Another word for the tower of a cable-stayed bridge.
Saddle The large device on top of a tower that carries a main cable.
Span The distance between two neighboring supports of a bridge.
Suspender Another name for an upright cable that carries the deck of a suspension bridge.
Tower A tall support from which the cables of a bridge hang.
Voussoir Any one of the wedge-shaped stones that make up an arch.

Truss Bridge 26

Bolt A threaded fastener; one way to fix a gusset plate.
Bowstring A truss with a curved top that looks like a tied arch.
Brace A piece added to a frame to stiffen it and keep members from buckling.
Chord The top or bottom beam of a truss.
Diagonal A slanting member of a truss.
Gusset With "plate", the flat piece that fastens beams and girders to a column.
Howe A truss whose diagonals slope up toward the center.
King post One of the simplest trusses: two angled supports leaning on one upright.
Lattice A truss built from many light crisscrossed pieces.
Lenticular A lens-shaped truss: one chord curves up and the other curves down.
Member Any single bar or beam of a truss.
Node The point where the ends of truss members meet.
Panel One of the areas inside the webs of a truss.
Pin The simple kind of joint at which truss members are assumed to meet.
Pony A truss whose sides rise past the roadbed without being joined overhead.
Pratt A truss whose diagonals slope down toward the center.
Queen post A truss with two uprights, for a longer opening than the one-upright kind can cross.
Rivet A metal fastener with a head; its tail is flattened to hold plates for good.
Spaghetti The dry noodle used to build model truss bridges in class.
Strut A member that resists being squeezed along its length.
Through Describes a truss bridge with members over the deck as well as under it.
Tie A member that resists being pulled apart.
Triangle The three-sided shape that cannot change form while its sides stay the same length.
Vertical An upright member of a truss.
Warren A truss of equal-sided triangles with no upright members.
Web The beams inside a truss, between the top and the bottom.

Forces on a Bridge 22

Bending What a beam does under a load that presses across its length.
Buckling The sudden bowing of a column that is squeezed too hard.
Catenary The curve of a cable or chain hanging under its own weight.
Compression The pushing force that squeezes an arch or the top chord of a truss.
Dead load The bridge's own weight.
Deflection How far a beam is bent out of line by a load.
Fatigue The slow growth of cracks in a material that is loaded again and again.
Live load The moving weight on a bridge, such as cars, trains and people.
Pull The kind of force behind tension.
Push The kind of force behind compression.
Resonance A growing sway that builds when pushes match a structure's natural rhythm.
Sag To droop in the middle under a weight.
Scour The washing away of sand and gravel from around a pier by fast water.
Shear A force that acts along a surface, sliding one layer of material past the next.
Stiffness How well an object resists being pushed out of shape.
Stress The force inside a material that is being pulled, pushed or twisted.
Tension The pulling force that stretches a cable or the bottom chord of a truss.
Thrust The outward push of an arch, held back by the abutments.
Torsion The twisting of an object by a turning force.
Vibration A quick back-and-forth shaking that wind and traffic can cause.
Weight The downward pull of gravity on an object.
Wind Moving air, one of the loads from nature that a bridge must stand.

Building a Bridge 24

Balsa A light wood often used for model bridges in class.
Brick A small block, one of the common units of masonry.
Bridge A structure built to cross a river, a road or another obstacle.
Centering The temporary frame that holds the stones of an arch while it is built.
Cofferdam An enclosure built in water and pumped dry so that work can go on inside it.
Concrete Stone bits bound with cement into a solid; strong when squeezed, weak when pulled.
Engineer A person trained to design structures and work out their strength.
Falsework A temporary structure that holds up a bridge until it can support itself.
Iron The metal of early metal bridges: the cast kind is brittle, the wrought kind better in tension.
Load A weight or force that a structure has to carry.
Masonry Building with stone, brick or concrete blocks, usually bound by mortar.
Model A small copy of a structure, built to test an idea.
Mortar The paste that binds stones or bricks together.
Prestressed Describes concrete squeezed in advance so that it stands up to pulling forces.
Railway A track for trains, which a bridge may carry or cross.
Rebar A steel bar set inside concrete to help it resist tension.
Reinforced Describes concrete with steel bars set inside it.
River A common obstacle for a bridge to cross.
Steel A strong alloy of iron and carbon; its mass production made new bridge forms possible.
Stone With timber and brick, a material of the arch bridges of ancient Rome.
Strand A bundle of wires twisted together, one part of a wire rope.
Timber Wood cut into beams and planks for building.
Valley Low land between hills, the kind of gap a viaduct crosses.
Wire A thin metal thread; many are twisted together to make a cable.

How this list was compiled: Own work: the word list and every clue were written for this page. The facts in the clues and in the page's answers were checked on 2026-10-09 against English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0): Bridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge), Truss bridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truss_bridge), Truss (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truss), Suspension bridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_bridge), Arch bridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_bridge), Beam bridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_bridge), Cantilever bridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantilever_bridge), Cable-stayed bridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable-stayed_bridge), Structural load (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_load), Tension (physics) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tension_(physics)), Compression (physics) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compression_(physics)), and the article on each bridge type, part and material in the list. Spellings and plain-word meanings were checked in Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/). Licence: own work

How it works

A bridge word search printable for the structures unit: the first grid holds 20 key terms, among them Truss, Arch, Suspension, Cable, Pier, Span, Beam and Abutment. It suits the lesson before a class builds model bridges.

Read the full guide

A truss bridge word search

Truss Bridge, under Start from a list, holds the truss words: Chord, Web, Panel, Gusset and Rivet, and the designs Warren, Pratt, Howe, King post and Queen post. In a Pratt truss the diagonals slope down toward the center; in a Howe they slope up.

Types, parts and forces

Types of Bridges has 25 words, from Beam and Arch to Bascule and Trestle. Parts of a Bridge has 25, among them Abutment, Pier, Keystone and Anchorage. Forces on a Bridge has 22, such as Dead load, Live load, Shear and Buckling, and Building a Bridge has 24, from Rebar to Cofferdam.

Cable-stayed, King post, Queen post, Dead load and Live load hide closed up: KINGPOST.

Questions and answers

What are the main types of bridges?

By structure: beam, arch, truss, cantilever, suspension and cable-stayed. A beam bridge is a flat span on supports, an arch is a curve under compression, and suspension and cable-stayed bridges hang the deck from cables.

What is a truss bridge?

A bridge whose load-bearing structure is a truss: connected members, usually straight and usually forming triangles, each one pulled or pushed along its length. It uses materials efficiently, which makes it economical to build.

Why are triangles used in truss bridges?

A triangle is the simplest figure that cannot change shape while the lengths of its sides stay fixed. A frame of triangles therefore keeps its form, and a single triangle is the simplest truss.

What is the difference between tension and compression?

Tension pulls on a member and stretches it; compression pushes on it and squeezes it. In a truss the top chords are typically in compression and the bottom chords in tension.

Does the bridge word search print with an answer key?

Yes: page one is the puzzle and page two is the key, with all the words ringed, on Letter or A4. With Show clues, not words ticked, Keystone becomes "The wedge-shaped top stone of an arch, set last, that locks the rest in place."

All 122 words

Types of Bridges 25

Types of Bridges, continued

Parts of a Bridge 25

Truss Bridge 26

Forces on a Bridge 22

Building a Bridge 24

How it works

A truss bridge word search

Types, parts and forces

Questions and answers

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