Clouds Crossword Puzzle

Print a criss-cross vocabulary crossword on clouds: the ten basic types, how they form, what falls and rare sky sights.

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Clouds Crossword

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Answer key: Clouds Crossword

1C2C3FOG4NIMBUSN5AMDL6CUET7DRIZZLENIRRUSTOR8STRATUSPUTDLS9HIEE10VAPORTIN11ANVIL

Across 3 FOG · 4 NIMBUS · 7 DRIZZLE · 8 STRATUS · 10 VAPOR · 11 ANVIL

Down 1 CONDENSATION · 2 CUMULUS · 5 ALTITUDE · 6 CIRRUS · 7 DROPLET · 9 HAIL

Next step Find weather words in a word searchPractice cloud vocabulary

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Naming and Measuring Clouds 23

  • Albedo Earth's is about 0.3, far higher than the ocean's, thanks to its clouds
  • Altitude How far up something is; clouds are grouped as low, mid or high by it
  • Atlas International Cloud ___: the worldwide standard, first published in 1896
  • Base Cloud ___: the lowest visible part of a cloud
  • Ceiling In aviation, the height of the lowest clouds that cover more than half the sky
  • Ceilometer Device that uses a laser to find how high a cloud's underside is
  • Cirrus High cloud always made of ice, lit up long before others at sunrise
  • Cooling Effect on climate that is stronger for low clouds than for high ones
  • Cumulus Puffy, cotton-like cloud, flat underneath
  • Curl The Latin name of the wispiest cloud means a tendril or a ___
  • Heap Meaning of the Latin name of the puffy, cotton-like cloud
  • Howard Luke ___, whose Latin cloud names were formally proposed in 1802
  • Meteorology Field of study whose best-known product is the daily forecast
  • Nephology The science of clouds
  • Nephoscope 19th-century instrument for measuring the height, direction and speed of clouds
  • Nimbus Latin word for a rain-bearing cloud
  • Okta Sky watchers count from 0 to 8 in this unit
  • Satellite Weather ___: the first, launched in February 1959, was designed to measure cloud cover
  • Seeding Cloud ___: adding specks such as silver iodide or dry ice to a cloud
  • Stratosphere Level of the atmosphere that the top of a powerful storm cloud can push into
  • Stratus Flat, hazy, featureless low cloud, dark gray to nearly white
  • Troposphere Its name, from the Greek for rotating, points to its turbulent mixing
  • Warming Effect on climate that is stronger for the highest clouds

The Ten Basic Clouds 22

  • Alto Latin for high, though it marks the mid-level clouds
  • Altocumulus Layered cloud of small rounded elements, each one to five degrees wide
  • Altostratus Gray or bluish cloud through which the Sun shows only as a dim, blurred disk
  • Anvil Shape of the flattened top of a full-grown storm cloud
  • Cauliflower Vegetable that the bulging top of a puffy cloud is said to resemble
  • Cirrocumulus Thin white sheet of grains or ripples without shading, often short-lived
  • Cirrostratus Veil so thin that things on the ground still cast shadows through it
  • Congestus Latin tag for a puffy cloud that has grown into a tower
  • Corona Colored ring close round the Sun or Moon, red on the outside and blue inside
  • Cumulonimbus Heavy, dense cloud in the form of a mountain or a huge tower
  • Filaments White, delicate, hair-like threads: the form of the wispiest high clouds
  • Finger Held at arm's length, the little one is about one degree wide: a ruler for cloudlets
  • Genus Rank of each basic cloud type in the official classification
  • Humilis Latin tag for the small puffy clouds that usually indicate fair weather
  • Mackerel ___ sky: rows of small clouds rippling like fish scales
  • Mare ___'s tails: usual name for hooked wisps of the highest clouds
  • Nimbostratus Dark gray cloud whose underside sinks lower as its rain goes on
  • Species Subdivision of a basic cloud type, the next rank down
  • Stratocumulus Low cloud of large dark, rounded masses in groups, lines or waves
  • Ten Number of basic cloud types in the worldwide standard
  • Thunderhead Nickname for a towering storm cloud at full growth
  • Vertical Word for a cloud that builds upward into a dense tower

How Clouds Form 27

  • Adiabatic Word for a temperature change with no heat passing in or out of the air
  • Condensation Step that makes a cloud out of invisible water gas
  • Convection Heat-driven overturning of air that raises puffy clouds over land by day
  • Cycle Water ___: the continuous change in form of water on, above and below Earth's surface
  • Dew Wetness on thin, exposed things at dawn or dusk, with no rain
  • Dew point Temperature below which the air must fall before a cloud can form
  • Dissipate What a cloud does when its drops turn back to gas faster than new ones form
  • Droplet Tiny liquid bead in a cloud, with a speck of dust or salt at its core
  • Entrain To mix drier air into a rising block of air
  • Evaporation How a wet towel on a line loses its water to the air
  • Expand What a block of air does as it rises, and so it cools
  • Front Weather ___: boundary separating two air masses
  • Frost Ice deposited on a cold solid from the air's moisture
  • Hygroscopic Word for specks that attract water
  • Lapse Dry ___ rate: the 5.5°F of chill for each 1,000 feet a block of air rises
  • Micrometer A thousandth of a millimeter: the least radius of a speck that water can gather on
  • Molecule A water one is too small on its own to start a cloud drop
  • Nuclei Smoke, ocean spray and soil specks on which cloud drops form (a plural)
  • Orographic ___ lift: air forced upward as it moves over rising terrain
  • Parcel Forecaster's word for a block of air that rises and cools
  • Pressure It is lower higher up, which is why rising air swells
  • Saturation Point where as much water leaves a drop as joins it
  • Sublimation Ice to gas with no puddle in between
  • Supercooled Word for water still liquid below the point where it should turn to ice
  • Thermal Rising current of warmed air that builds puffy clouds
  • Updraft A strong one carries a storm cloud well into the high levels
  • Vapor Water ___: what a wet towel's water becomes as it dries

What Falls from Clouds 21

  • Bentley American, born 1865, the first known to take detailed photographs of snow crystals
  • Charge Electric ___: two regions that carry it are joined by a flash
  • Cloudburst A brief, heavy fall of rain
  • Crack Sudden, loud sound that thunder can make
  • Downpour Torrential rain that goes on and on
  • Drizzle Very light, on-and-off rain, normally from a low layer cloud
  • Freezing ___ rain: it turns to ice on contact with surfaces
  • Graupel Soft balls of 2 to 5 mm, made when very cold drops freeze onto falling snow
  • Gravity Without it no raindrop would ever come down
  • Hail Chunks of ice, usually 5 mm or bigger, from a towering cloud
  • Hailstone Lump built of alternating clear and cloudy layers of ice
  • Lightning Flash seen before the sound of its shock wave arrives
  • Precipitation Weather-report word that covers rain and every frozen kind of fall
  • Rime Crisp, opaque ice of which soft snow pellets are made
  • Rod One meaning of the Latin word behind the name of a rain streak that never lands
  • Rumble Long, low noise from a far-off storm
  • Shower Rain that is brief and moderate, in a forecaster's word
  • Six Fold of the symmetry that a growing snow crystal approximates
  • Sleet Small, hard, see-through bits of ice, in an American forecast
  • Snowflake One crystal of ice big enough to fall to Earth
  • Virga Rain you can see hanging under a cloud that never wets the ground

Special Clouds and Sky Sights 28

  • Asperitas Rough-looking cloud feature officially added in March 2017; its name means roughness
  • Contrail Line-shaped cloud produced by engine exhaust at cruising height
  • Crepuscular ___ rays: shafts of sunlight, named from the Latin for twilight
  • Fallstreak ___ hole: large, usually circular gap that can open in a thin cloud sheet
  • Fog If you have walked through it, you have walked through a cloud
  • Forest Cloud ___: moist mountain woodland with persistent low cloud
  • Funnel ___ cloud: cone of water drops on a rotating column of wind
  • Glory Morning ___: roll cloud seen regularly over the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia
  • Halo Bright circle round the Sun; the best-known kind measures 22 degrees
  • Haze Dimness in dry air caused by fine dust rather than by water drops
  • Iridescence Cloud ___: colorful optical effect seen in a cloud near the Sun or Moon
  • Lenticular Word for a lens-shaped cloud that has been mistaken for a UFO
  • Mammatus Pattern of pouches hanging underneath a cloud
  • Mist Small water drops hanging in cold air that dim the view only a little
  • Nacreous Shimmering ice-crystal cloud type seen high over the polar regions
  • Noctilucent Word for the "night shining" clouds 76 to 85 km up, higher than any others
  • Overcast Sky report when cloud hides 95% of it or more
  • Pearl Mother of ___: the meaning of nacre, which names a polar cloud
  • Pileus Small cap or scarf cloud above a towering cloud
  • Rainbow Circular arc of many colors that airborne water can cause
  • Saucer Shape, beside a lens, that smooth mountain clouds are compared to
  • Scud Low, detached, irregular scraps found beneath a rain cloud
  • Sea ___ of clouds: a layer viewed from above, its top like waves
  • Shelf ___ cloud: with the roll cloud, one of the two main kinds of arcus
  • Smog Thick, smoky pollution; its name is a portmanteau of the early 1900s
  • Sun dog Bright spot to one or both sides of the Sun
  • Udder One meaning of the Latin "mamma", behind the name of pouch-like clouds
  • Wall ___ cloud: large, often abrupt lowering under a storm cloud

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for grades 4 to 9, in five sets. Cloud types, names and figures were checked against the Ten Basic Clouds and How Clouds Form pages of NOAA's JetStream school (noaa.gov/jetstream), NASA's page How Do Clouds Form? and English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) in October 2026. Licence: own work

How it works

This clouds crossword puzzle prints on Letter or A4, answer key included. The first puzzle has 12 basic words, including Cumulus, Stratus, Cirrus, Nimbus, Fog, Condensation and Altitude. Cloud, sky and rain are never answers; they stay in the clues.

Read the full guide

Five sets after the basics

The Ten Basic Clouds has Cirrostratus, Altocumulus, Nimbostratus and Cumulonimbus. How Clouds Form has Nuclei, Dew point, Updraft and Supercooled. What Falls from Clouds has Graupel, Virga, Sleet and Hailstone. Special Clouds and Sky Sights has Lenticular, Mammatus, Noctilucent and Sun dog. Naming and Measuring Clouds has Okta, Ceiling, Nephology and Albedo.

Figures a class can check

Clues carry the figures of their sources: hail of 5 mm or more, graupel of 2 to 5 mm, the 22-degree halo, an overcast sky at 95 percent cover, night-shining clouds 76 to 85 km up, the Latin names of 1802 and the cloud atlas of 1896.

  • Print The Ten Basic Clouds for a week of sky watching, and let students check off each type they spot.

Questions and answers

Does the clouds crossword puzzle have an answer key?

Yes. The key prints last, on a sheet of its own, with the grid filled in and the answers listed by clue number. It is free, with no sign-up.

What grade is the clouds crossword puzzle for?

Cloud Basics suits grades 4 to 6, with answers such as Fog, Hail and Rainbow. The five themed sets suit grades 6 to 9, with answers such as Altostratus, Hygroscopic and Noctilucent. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

What are the ten basic types of clouds?

Cirrus, cirrocumulus and cirrostratus are high clouds. Altocumulus, altostratus and nimbostratus are mid-level. Cumulus, stratocumulus, stratus and cumulonimbus are low, in the grouping of NOAA's JetStream school. All ten are answers.

What are clouds made of?

Tiny water droplets or ice crystals. A droplet forms on a speck of dust, smoke or salt when water vapor, an invisible gas, condenses in rising, cooling air. Droplet, Vapor and Condensation are answers in Cloud Basics.

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