Printable Constellations Word Search

A night sky vocabulary sheet with its answer key: constellations, the zodiac, bright stars and star patterns.

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Constellations Word Search

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IULHCUQEGORIONP

KRSDYWTAEHIUCHL

WICRGADIMCEKOIN

RPOANMRIIASONAL

HERCULESNSSZSNY

ZGPOSIRRISLNTDR

OAIIHBIGDIPPERA

DSURSAMAJORRLOS

IUSTSDGWPPNJLMT

ASZEITLEOESCAEE

CAECRGPSLICOTDR

RANDIEUHAAEMIAI

NTSOUTHERNCROSS

DDLASLDFILRWNFM

PNITAURUSIADEPI

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.

TaurusTAURUS
GeminiGEMINI
LeoLEO
ScorpiusSCORPIUS
ZodiacZODIAC
Ursa MajorURSA MAJOR
CygnusCYGNUS
DracoDRACO
PegasusPEGASUS
OrionORION
HerculesHERCULES
AndromedaANDROMEDA
CassiopeiaCASSIOPEIA
LyraLYRA
Southern CrossSOUTHERN CROSS
Big DipperBIG DIPPER
AsterismASTERISM
PolarisPOLARIS
SiriusSIRIUS
ConstellationCONSTELLATION

20 words from the Constellation Key Terms list.

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Answer key: Constellations Word Search

IULHCUQEGORIONP

KRSDYWTAEHIUCHL

WICRGADIMCEKOIN

RPOANMRIIASONAL

HERCULESNSSZSNY

ZGPOSIRRISLNTDR

OAIIHBIGDIPPERA

DSURSAMAJORRLOS

IUSTSDGWPPNJLMT

ASZEITLEOESCAEE

CAECRGPSLICOTDR

RANDIEUHAAEMIAI

NTSOUTHERNCROSS

DDLASLDFILRWNFM

PNITAURUSIADEPI

TAURUS, GEMINI, LEO, SCORPIUS, ZODIAC, URSA MAJOR, CYGNUS, DRACO, PEGASUS, ORION, HERCULES, ANDROMEDA, CASSIOPEIA, LYRA, SOUTHERN CROSS, BIG DIPPER, ASTERISM, POLARIS, SIRIUS, CONSTELLATION

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All 130 words

Zodiac Constellations 27

Aquarius One of the oldest constellations on the Sun's path, in a region with a whale and a river.
Archer Someone who shoots with a bow.
Aries Its brightest star is Hamal; it has been seen as a male sheep since Babylonian times.
Bull The male of cattle, one of the oldest figures people have seen in the stars.
Cancer A medium-size constellation of rather faint stars; ten of them are known to have planets.
Capricornus The smallest constellation of the zodiac; its Latin name speaks of horns.
Crab An animal with a hard shell and two pincers.
Ecliptic The path the Sun appears to follow against the stars over a year.
Fishes Water animals with fins and gills; an old plural.
Gemini Its two brightest stars are Castor and Pollux, named for brothers in Greek myth.
Leo One of the easiest to recognize, with many bright stars; the brightest is Regulus.
Libra A fairly faint constellation with no first-magnitude star; its name is Latin for a weighing tool.
Lion A big cat; the stars show two, a large one and a small one.
Maiden A girl or unmarried young woman.

Show all 130 words (116 more)

Zodiac Constellations, continued

Ophiuchus The serpent-bearer: a thirteenth constellation that the Sun's path crosses.
Pisces A pair of swimmers joined by cords, where the Sun's path crosses the celestial equator.
Ram A male sheep.
Sagittarius Drawn as a centaur with a bow; the Milky Way's center is found here.
Scales A tool for weighing things.
Scorpion A small animal with pincers and a stinging tail.
Scorpius A southern constellation near the center of the Milky Way; reddish Antares is called its heart.
Sea goat A mythical creature, half fish; its other half is a horned farm animal.
Taurus A large winter constellation that holds the red giant Aldebaran and the Pleiades.
Twins Two children born together; Castor and Pollux are a famous pair.
Virgo The second-largest constellation in the whole sky.
Water bearer A figure who carries and pours the liquid that fills rivers.
Zodiac The belt of sky along the Sun's yearly path, with twelve constellations named for it.

Animal Constellations 27

Apus The bird-of-paradise; its Greek name means "without feet".
Aquila The eagle, on the celestial equator; its brightest star is Altair.
Camelopardalis The giraffe, a large but faint northern constellation introduced in the 1600s.
Canis Major The greater dog, shown following Orion; it holds Sirius, the dog star.
Canis Minor The lesser dog, a small constellation whose brightest star is Procyon.
Cetus The sea monster of Greek myth, sometimes called the whale.
Columba The dove, a faint constellation just south of the greater dog and the hare.
Corvus The raven, a small constellation shown perched on the back of the water snake.
Cygnus The swan of the northern summer sky; its bright stars form the Northern Cross.
Delphinus The dolphin, a small northern constellation: four stars for the body, one for the tail.
Dorado Named for the mahi-mahi, a golden fish; it holds most of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Draco The dragon of the far northern sky, which never sets for northern observers.
Grus The crane, a southern bird constellation first shown on a globe in 1598.
Hydra The water snake, the largest of all 88 constellations and the longest.
Leo Minor The smaller lion, a faint constellation just south of the great bear.
Lepus The hare, just south of Orion and sometimes shown being chased by the hunter.
Lupus The wolf, a southern constellation long treated as part of its neighbor the centaur.
Lynx A faint northern constellation named after a wild cat; its brightest stars zigzag.
Monoceros The unicorn, a faint constellation that lies on the celestial equator beside Orion.
Pavo The peacock, one of four constellations known as the Southern Birds.
Pegasus The winged horse of Greek myth, lying just north of the celestial equator.
Phoenix Named after a mythical bird, and grouped with the crane, the peacock and the toucan.
Serpens The snake, the only constellation split into two separate parts: a head and a tail.
Tucana The toucan, a southern constellation; the bird it is named for lives in South America.
Ursa Major The great bear, third largest constellation; its seven main stars form a famous dipper.
Ursa Minor The little bear of the far northern sky, with the North Star at the tip of its tail.
Vulpecula The little fox, a faint constellation in the middle of the Summer Triangle.

People and Objects in the Sky 26

Andromeda Named for a princess of Greek myth, the daughter of a vain queen, who was chained to a rock.
Ara The altar, a southern constellation next to the scorpion.
Argo A huge ship constellation on Ptolemy's list, later divided into keel, stern and sails.
Auriga The charioteer, a northern winter constellation whose brightest star is Capella.
Bootes The herdsman; it holds Arcturus, the brightest star in the northern half of the sky.
Carina The keel of a ship; its star Canopus is outshone at night only by Sirius.
Cassiopeia Named after a vain queen of Greek myth; five bright stars give it a W shape.
Centaurus The centaur, half human and half horse; it holds the nearest star system to ours.
Cepheus Named after a king of Greek myth, in the deep northern sky.
Coma Berenices Berenice's hair: the only modern constellation named after a person from history.
Corona Borealis The northern crown: a small constellation whose brightest stars form a half circle.
Hercules Named after a Roman hero; the fifth largest constellation, with no very bright star.
Horologium The pendulum clock, a faint southern constellation first described in 1756.
Lyra The lyre, a small northern constellation whose brightest star is Vega.
Microscopium Named by a French astronomer in the 18th century after the microscope.
Octans Named after a navigator's instrument; the south celestial pole lies inside it.
Orion The hunter of Greek myth: a bright winter constellation that holds Rigel.
Perseus A northern constellation named after a Greek hero, with others from his story close by.
Puppis The stern, the largest of the three constellations made from one old ship.
Pyxis The mariner's compass, a small and faint southern constellation.
Sagitta The arrow, a dim northern constellation with the third-smallest area of all.
Scutum The shield, a small constellation with a narrow diamond of four bright stars.
Southern Cross The common name of Crux, the smallest of the 88 constellations: four bright stars.
Telescopium One of several southern constellations that picture scientific instruments: the telescope.
Triangulum A small northern constellation named for the long, narrow shape of its three brightest stars.
Vela The sails, once part of a much larger ship constellation.

Bright Stars and Star Patterns 26

Alcor The fainter star of a naked-eye pair in the handle of the dipper.
Aldebaran A red giant, the brightest star in Taurus; its Arabic name means the follower.
Altair The brightest star in the eagle and the twelfth-brightest in the night sky.
Antares The reddish star often called the heart of the scorpion.
Arcturus A red giant; only three stars of the night sky look brighter.
Asterism A star pattern that is not one of the 88 official constellations, such as a dipper.
Betelgeuse A reddish supergiant in Orion, usually about tenth among the stars for brightness.
Big Dipper Seven bright stars of the great bear: four make a bowl and three a handle.
Canopus A white star in the keel of the old ship; only one star looks brighter at night.
Capella The brightest star in the charioteer and the sixth-brightest in the night sky.
Castor One of the twins: it looks like a single star and is really six.
Deneb A blue supergiant in the swan; its name comes from the Arabic word for tail.
Great Square Four stars that mark the body of the winged horse; one of them belongs to Andromeda.
Little Dipper Seven stars of the smaller bear: four in its bowl, and the North Star ending its handle.
Mizar A star of the second magnitude in the dipper's handle, itself really four stars.
Northern Cross The brightest stars of the swan, in a shape much larger than its southern namesake.
Orion's Belt Three bright stars, nearly evenly spaced in a line, across the middle of the hunter.
Pleiades The Seven Sisters: a star cluster in Taurus, with six or seven stars easy to see by eye.
Polaris The North Star, less than one degree from the north celestial pole.
Pollux The brightest star in Gemini, an orange-hued giant 34 light-years away.
Regulus The brightest point of light in Leo: really four stars in two pairs.
Rigel A blue supergiant, the brightest star in Orion.
Sirius The dog star: at night no other star looks brighter.
Summer Triangle Three bright stars of three constellations: the lyre, the swan and the eagle.
Teapot The pattern formed by the brighter stars of the archer.
Vega The brightest star in the lyre; only four stars of the night sky look brighter.

Reading the Night Sky 24

Boundary An official edge between two regions of the sky; these were adopted in 1928.
Celestial With "sphere", the imaginary ball around Earth on which the stars seem to lie.
Circumpolar Never setting below the horizon, as seen from where you stand.
Constellation One of the official regions of the sky, each named for a figure seen in its stars.
Eighty-eight The number of names on the official list accepted in 1922.
Equator The circle in the sky that lies in the same plane as Earth's own middle line.
Hemisphere Half of the sky: the part north or the part south of the sky's dividing circle.
Latin The language of every official name on the list of 88.
Latitude How far north or south you are on Earth, which decides the stars you can see.
Leonids A yearly meteor shower whose meteors seem to spread out from a point in Leo.
Magnitude A measure of how bright a star looks; the brightest stars have the lowest numbers.
Myth An old story; many star figures are named for characters in Greek ones.
Naked eye Seeing without a telescope or binoculars.
Navigation Finding your way; sailors have long used the North Star for it.
Northern Describes the half of the sky that holds the Big Dipper and the lyre.
Orionids A meteor shower in late October that appears to come from a point in Orion.
Pattern What a group of stars seems to form: a picture or outline.
Perseids A meteor shower, seen from mid-July to late August, named for Perseus.
Planisphere A star chart made of two disks that turn to show the stars for any date and time.
Pole One of two points in the sky that all the stars appear to turn around.
Ptolemy The 2nd-century astronomer who listed 48 star figures in his Almagest.
Season A time of year: Orion is a winter sight in the north, the swan a summer one.
Southern Describes the half of the sky that European explorers mapped later.
Star hopping A way amateur astronomers find faint things in the night sky, with brighter ones as a guide.

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 2026-10-09 against the International Astronomical Union's page The Constellations (https://iauarchive.eso.org/public/themes/constellations/), which gives the 88 constellations with their English names, and against English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0): the table of IAU designated constellations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAU_designated_constellations) and the articles on the constellation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation), the zodiac (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac), the asterism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterism_(astronomy)), the Big Dipper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dipper), the Summer Triangle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Triangle), the ecliptic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecliptic), the circumpolar star (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumpolar_star), the planisphere (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planisphere), and the article of each constellation, star, star pattern, meteor shower and sky term in the list. Licence: own work

How it works

This printable constellations word search puts 20 names on the first grid, among them Orion, Ursa Major, Cassiopeia, Lyra, Scorpius, Zodiac and Big Dipper. Planets, rockets and telescopes are on the space word search.

Read the full guide

Zodiac, animals, people and objects

Zodiac Constellations, under Start from a list, has 27 words: the twelve constellations, Ophiuchus, the twelve figures they show, from Ram to Water bearer, and the words Zodiac and Ecliptic. Animal Constellations has 27, such as Draco, Cygnus, Lepus and Camelopardalis. People and Objects in the Sky has 26, from Hercules and Andromeda to Lyra and the three parts of the old ship Argo.

Stars, star patterns and the night sky

Bright Stars and Star Patterns has 26 words, among them Sirius, Betelgeuse, Pleiades and Summer Triangle. Reading the Night Sky has 24 for a stargazing lesson: Circumpolar, Magnitude, Planisphere and three meteor showers named for the constellations they seem to come from.

Nineteen entries have a space, a hyphen or an apostrophe and hide closed up: URSAMAJOR, ORIONSBELT, EIGHTYEIGHT.
For a first sheet, Easy Constellations holds the 32 shortest words, Leo, Lyra and Ram among them.

Questions and answers

How many constellations are there?

There are 88. The International Astronomical Union accepted the list in 1922 and adopted official boundaries in 1928, so every point in the sky lies in exactly one constellation.

What are the 12 zodiac constellations?

Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces. They lie along the ecliptic, the Sun's yearly path against the stars, which also crosses a thirteenth constellation, Ophiuchus.

What is the difference between a constellation and an asterism?

A constellation is one of the 88 official regions of the sky. An asterism is any other recognized star pattern: the Big Dipper is seven stars inside Ursa Major, and the Summer Triangle joins stars of three constellations.

What is the largest constellation?

Hydra, the water snake, which covers 1,303 square degrees of sky. The smallest is Crux, the Southern Cross, at 68 square degrees.

Is the constellations word search free to print with an answer key?

Yes, with no sign-up: the puzzle, then the same grid with every name ringed, on Letter or A4. Tick Show clues, not words and Cassiopeia is listed as "Named after a vain queen of Greek myth; five bright stars give it a W shape."

All 130 words

Zodiac Constellations 27

Zodiac Constellations, continued

Animal Constellations 27

People and Objects in the Sky 26

Bright Stars and Star Patterns 26

Reading the Night Sky 24

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Zodiac, animals, people and objects

Stars, star patterns and the night sky

Questions and answers

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