Cell and Cell Organelles Word Search Puzzle With an Answer Key

Give the class the organelle names to hunt the day before they label a cell diagram.

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Cell and Organelles Word Search

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0 of 16 words found

SEJRNVACUOLEGSZ

BTREHUIAOIMARBG

AKITAMYVESICLEO

QYBIHIEBHUTHFOR

GCOCHROMOSOMEEG

MSSUMICROSCOPEA

ILOLEPNRUIHBGRN

TLMUMLLMLIOLSME

OYEMBNERMMNDTSL

SSULRPANLSDLACL

IOMIAWEUKARYOTE

SSVXNCENTRIOLEJ

XOOCELLYADASXSX

RMPROKARYOTEUML

IESPROTEINIRGNM

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.

OrganelleORGANELLE
RibosomeRIBOSOME
MitochondriaMITOCHONDRIA
VacuoleVACUOLE
LysosomeLYSOSOME
CentrioleCENTRIOLE
VesicleVESICLE
MembraneMEMBRANE
ReticulumRETICULUM
ProkaryotePROKARYOTE
EukaryoteEUKARYOTE
MitosisMITOSIS
ChromosomeCHROMOSOME
ProteinPROTEIN
CellCELL
MicroscopeMICROSCOPE

16 of 24 words from the Cell Key Terms list.

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Answer key: Cell and Organelles Word Search

SEJRNVACUOLEGSZ

BTREHUIAOIMARBG

AKITAMYVESICLEO

QYBIHIEBHUTHFOR

GCOCHROMOSOMEEG

MSSUMICROSCOPEA

ILOLEPNRUIHBGRN

TLMUMLLMLIOLSME

OYEMBNERMMNDTSL

SSULRPANLSDLACL

IOMIAWEUKARYOTE

SSVXNCENTRIOLEJ

XOOCELLYADASXSX

RMPROKARYOTEUML

IESPROTEINIRGNM

ORGANELLE, RIBOSOME, MITOCHONDRIA, VACUOLE, LYSOSOME, CENTRIOLE, VESICLE, MEMBRANE, RETICULUM, PROKARYOTE, EUKARYOTE, MITOSIS, CHROMOSOME, PROTEIN, CELL, MICROSCOPE

Next step Build a puzzle from your own textbook's cell terms Scramble the same cell words

All 131 words

Cell Organelles 25

Cell wall A tough layer outside the membrane of plants, fungi and algae. Animals have none.
Centriole A small cylinder made of tubulin. A pair of them helps organize the spindle.
Centrosome The main microtubule organizing center of an animal cell, built from two centrioles.
Chloroplast The green organelle that carries out photosynthesis in plants and algae.
Cilia Short hair-like growths on a cell. The kind that beats can move fluid or the whole cell.
Cristae The folds of a mitochondrion's inner membrane, which give it a much larger working surface.
Cytoplasm All the material inside the cell membrane, organelles included, apart from the nucleus.
Cytoskeleton A changing network of protein filaments that gives a cell its shape.
Cytosol The gel-like liquid left when you take the organelles out of the cytoplasm.
Flagellum A long hair-like tail, named from the Latin for whip, that some cells use to swim.
Golgi A stack of flat sacs that packages proteins into vesicles, found in 1898 by an Italian scientist.
Lysosome A small sac of digestive enzymes that can break down many kinds of biological molecules.
Membrane The thin double layer of lipids around every cell. It controls what goes in and out.

Show all 131 words (118 more)

Cell Organelles, continued

Microtubule A hollow tube of tubulin: part of the cytoskeleton and a track for moving vesicles.
Mitochondria The powerhouses of the cell. They use oxygen to make ATP, the energy supply.
Nucleolus The largest structure inside the nucleus, best known as the place where ribosomes are made.
Nucleus The compartment that holds nearly all of the DNA in a plant or animal cell.
Organelle A small part inside a cell that does one job, as an organ does in a body.
Peroxisome A small organelle that breaks down very long fatty acids and deals with hydrogen peroxide.
Plastid The family of plant organelles that includes the chloroplast. Other kinds store pigments or starch.
Reticulum Endoplasmic ___: a network of flattened sacs and tubes that folds proteins and makes lipids.
Ribosome A tiny particle that reads messenger RNA and joins amino acids, in order, to build a protein.
Thylakoid A flat disk inside a chloroplast, site of the light reactions. A stack looks like a pile of coins.
Vacuole A sac filled mostly with water. A plant cell has one large one that helps keep it firm.
Vesicle A small bubble wrapped in a lipid bilayer that carries material around the cell.

Membranes and Transport 19

Bilayer Two sheets of lipid molecules back to back: the basic structure of a cell membrane.
Channel A membrane protein with a pore that lets ions pass through.
Diffusion The net movement of particles from where there are many to where there are few.
Endocytosis Bringing material into the cell inside a pocket of membrane that pinches off as a vesicle.
Equilibrium The balanced state in which a substance is evenly spread and net movement stops.
Exocytosis Sending molecules out of the cell when a vesicle joins the outer membrane.
Gradient A difference in concentration between one place and another.
Hypertonic Describes a solution with more solute than the cell. Water leaves and the cell shrinks.
Hypotonic Describes a solution with less solute than the cell. Water moves in and the cell swells.
Isotonic Describes a solution that matches the cell, so it neither swells nor shrinks.
Osmosis The movement of water across a membrane toward the side with more dissolved solute.
Permeable Letting substances pass through. A cell membrane is selectively so.
Phagocytosis Cell eating: the cell wraps its membrane around a large particle and takes it in.
Phospholipid The main membrane molecule: a water-loving head and two water-fearing tails.
Plasmolysis What happens to a plant cell in a hypertonic solution: it loses water and peels from its wall.
Pump A membrane protein that uses ATP to push ions across. One moves sodium and potassium.
Solute The substance that gets dissolved, such as the salt in salt water.
Transport Active ___ uses the cell's energy to move a substance against its concentration gradient.
Turgor The pressure that pushes a plant cell's membrane against its wall and keeps the plant firm.

Kinds of Cells 22

Algae Photosynthetic organisms that range from single cells to seaweeds many meters long.
Amoeba A single-celled organism that changes shape by pushing out pseudopods, or false feet.
Animal cell It has a nucleus and mitochondria but no wall and no chloroplasts.
Archaea Prokaryotes first found in extreme places like salt lakes and hot springs.
Bacteria Prokaryotes found almost everywhere, most often living as single cells.
Blood cell The red kind carries oxygen and, in mammals, has no nucleus once it is mature.
Euglena A single-celled swimmer with a flagellum. Most species also have chloroplasts.
Eukaryote A living thing whose cells have a nucleus: an animal, plant, fungus or protist.
Fungi The kingdom of yeasts, molds and mushrooms. Their cell walls contain chitin.
Guard cell One of a pair around a leaf pore. They swell to open it and go limp to close it.
Multicellular Built from many tiny living units that work together, as every animal and every plant is.
Neuron A nerve cell. It fires electric signals.
Organ A collection of tissues joined in one unit to do a common job, such as a heart or a leaf.
Paramecium A single-celled pond dweller covered in cilia, once nicknamed the slipper animalcule.
Plant cell It has a stiff outer wall, green plastids for photosynthesis and one large vacuole.
Prokaryote A single-celled living thing with no nucleus, such as a bacterium.
Protist A living thing with a nucleus that fits none of three groups: animals, land plants and fungi.
Stem cell A blank starter unit of the body that can turn into blood, nerve, muscle or other kinds.
Tissue A group of similar cells that carry out one function together.
Unicellular Made of just one cell.
Virus Not a cell: a tiny infectious agent that can copy itself only inside a living cell.
Yeast A fungus that grows as single cells and reproduces by budding. Bakers depend on it.

Cell Division 18

Anaphase The stage when the copied chromosomes split and are pulled toward the two ends of the cell.
Cell cycle The round of growth, DNA copying and division that turns one into two.
Cell plate The new partition that grows across the middle when a land plant's cytoplasm divides.
Centromere The pinched spot where the two copied halves of a chromosome stay joined.
Chromatid Either of the two matching strands of a chromosome that has just been copied.
Cytokinesis The step in which the cytoplasm of one cell is divided between two.
Daughter cell Either of the two new living units formed when a parent unit divides.
Diploid Having two sets of chromosomes. A human body cell has 46, in 23 pairs.
Gamete A sex cell. It is haploid and fuses with another at fertilization.
Haploid Having a single set of chromosomes, as a gamete does.
Interphase The busy part of the cycle when a cell grows, copies its DNA and prepares to divide.
Meiosis The double division that makes sex cells. Four result, each with half the usual chromosomes.
Metaphase The stage when the chromosomes line up across the middle of the dividing cell.
Mitosis Division of the nucleus: the copied chromosomes are pulled apart to make two matching nuclei.
Prophase The stage when the chromatin condenses into chromosomes and the nucleolus disappears.
Spindle The structure, built mostly of microtubules, that separates sister chromatids.
Telophase The stage when a nuclear envelope forms again around each set of chromosomes.
Zygote The cell formed when two gametes fuse at fertilization.

DNA, Proteins and Energy 26

Adenine The base that pairs with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA.
Amino acid A building block of proteins. Twenty kinds are common in living things.
ATP Short for adenosine triphosphate, often called the energy currency of the cell.
Chlorophyll The green pigment in chloroplasts that lets plants absorb energy from light.
Chromatin The complex of DNA and histone proteins that packs the genetic material into the nucleus.
Chromosome A very long DNA molecule packed with proteins. Human cells have 23 pairs.
Codon Three nucleotides in a row that specify which amino acid comes next.
Cytosine The base that pairs with guanine.
DNA The double-stranded molecule that stores genetic information in the nucleus.
Enzyme A biological catalyst, usually a protein, that speeds up a reaction without being used up.
Gene A stretch of DNA holding the instructions for one protein or RNA, passed from parent to young.
Genome The full set of DNA instructions in a living thing.
Glucose The most common simple sugar. Plants build it out of water and carbon dioxide, with light.
Guanine The base that pairs with cytosine.
Helix Double ___: the shape formed by the two strands of DNA.
Lipid A member of the group of compounds that includes fats, waxes and sterols.
Mutation A change in the sequence of the genetic material.
Nucleotide A building block of DNA and RNA: a base, a five-carbon sugar and a phosphate.
Photosynthesis The process that stores light energy in sugars and releases oxygen from split water.
Protein A large molecule made of long chains of amino acids, folded into a 3D shape.
Respiration Cellular ___: the reactions that move chemical energy from nutrients into ATP.
RNA The nucleic acid that uses uracil. The messenger kind carries a gene's code to a ribosome.
Thymine The DNA base that pairs with adenine. RNA does not use it.
Transcription Making an RNA copy of a stretch of DNA.
Translation Decoding messenger RNA in a ribosome to build a chain of amino acids.
Uracil One of the four bases in RNA. It binds to adenine.

Microscopes and Cell Theory 21

Cell The basic unit of life. Robert Hooke gave it this name in his book of 1665.
Cork The bark Hooke sliced thin in 1665. Its small enclosures reminded him of monastery rooms.
Cover slip A smaller, thinner sheet of glass placed over the specimen.
Eyepiece The lens at the top of a microscope, the one you look through.
Focus To adjust a microscope until the image is sharp.
Hooke English scientist who coined the biological word cell in 1665 after viewing thin cork.
Leeuwenhoek Dutch microscopist who, in the 1670s, began to explore the tiny life he called animalcules.
Lens A curved piece of glass. A set of them magnifies the image in a microscope.
Micrometer One millionth of a meter: the unit used for the sizes of cells and bacteria.
Microscope An instrument that uses lenses to make magnified images of small objects.
Objective The lens nearest the specimen. Several usually sit on a rotating turret.
Onion A favorite first specimen. Its clear skin cells lie in a single layer and have no chloroplasts.
Organism Any living thing. Every one is built of a single cell or many.
Schleiden German botanist (1804 to 1881), a co-founder of cell theory, who studied plant structure.
Schwann German physiologist (1810 to 1882) who extended cell theory to animals.
Slide A thin flat piece of glass, about 75 by 26 millimeters, that holds the specimen.
Specimen The sample you place under the microscope to examine.
Stage The flat platform of a microscope where the object is placed.
Stain A dye added to a sample to increase contrast, so cell parts show up.
Theory Cell ___: all living things are made of cells, and every cell comes from an earlier cell.
Virchow German physician whose 1858 book spread the saying that all cells come from cells.

How this list was compiled: Own work: the word list and every clue were written for this page. The facts in the clues were checked on 2026-09-19 against Wikipedia, among them the articles on the cell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_%28biology%29), organelles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organelle) and mitosis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitosis). Some clues were reworded on 2026-09-20, and any fact that changed was checked against Wikipedia the same day. Licence: own work

How it works

This cell and cell organelles word search puzzle starts with 16 of 24 key terms, among them Nucleus, Ribosome and Mitochondria. Nine lists, from Cell Organelles to Microscopes and Cell Theory, hold 131 words in all.

Read the full guide

A cell organelle word search, or the whole cell unit

For organelles alone, pick Cell Organelles under Start from a list and press Add another until the list holds 20: the list has 25, from Nucleus to Thylakoid. Membranes and Transport (19) fits the osmosis lab, Cell Division (18) the mitosis lesson and DNA, Proteins and Energy (26) the week on genes. Kinds of Cells (22) and Microscopes and Cell Theory (21) open the unit. This vocabulary runs long: Easy Cell Biology has only 24 words of 3 to 5 letters, and Hard Cell Biology has 57 of 9 to 14.

Eleven entries are two words, such as Cell wall and Amino acid. In the grid the space is dropped: CELLWALL.
Mitochondria and Cytoskeleton fill 12 squares each. A 12 by 12 grid left key terms out in testing, so the page opens on 13.

Questions and answers

Is this the key to a cell organelles hand-out from class?

No. The answer key here fits only the grid made here, and New puzzle changes both. It prints as page 2, behind the puzzle, on Letter or A4. A published worksheet's key belongs to its publisher.

Does it cover both plant cells and animal cells?

Yes. Cell Organelles holds the parts both share, such as Nucleus, Ribosome and Golgi, beside Chloroplast, Plastid and Cell wall, which animal cells lack, and Centriole, which flowering plants lack. Kinds of Cells adds Plant cell, Animal cell and Guard cell.

How can pupils find an organelle from its job?

Tick Show clues, not words, in More options. Ribosome then reads "A tiny particle that reads messenger RNA and joins amino acids, in order, to build a protein."

Who named the cell?

Robert Hooke, in 1665, after viewing thin slices of cork. Hooke and Cork are both in Microscopes and Cell Theory, with Leeuwenhoek, Schwann, Schleiden and Virchow.

All 131 words

Cell Organelles 25

Cell Organelles, continued

Membranes and Transport 19

Kinds of Cells 22

Cell Division 18

DNA, Proteins and Energy 26

Microscopes and Cell Theory 21

How it works

A cell organelle word search, or the whole cell unit

Questions and answers

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