Crossword Puzzles for Teens Printable

A mixed teenage crossword of 12 clues is drawn below: press Print for the sheet and its answer key.

More options

Settings you change are kept in this browser for your next visit.

Name Date

Crossword

Read each clue and write the answer in the squares that start at its number, one letter in each square.

This grid is wider than a phone screen, so it scrolls sideways. It prints whole.

Tap a square, and its clue shows here.

Across

Down

Type in a square and the next one takes over. Tap the same square again, or press Space, to switch between Across and Down. Arrow keys move around the grid, Enter goes to the next clue, and a clue takes you to its squares.

Print gives 2 pages on Letter or A4: the puzzle with its clues, then the answer key. The squares print 9 mm wide. For a PDF, choose Save as PDF in the print window.

A share link holds the puzzle number and these settings, nothing you typed.

Answer key: Crossword

1T2HUYI3PROOFREADTO4INTERN5SH6IPOHUSNEFT7AS8KFAT9ANIMATIONHSRXBEAUN10ALLOY11PLASMAK12NEBULA

Across 3 PROOFREAD · 4 INTERNSHIP · 9 ANIMATION · 10 ALLOY · 11 PLASMA · 12 NEBULA

Down 1 TUITION · 2 HYPOTHESIS · 5 SUFFIX · 6 ISTANBUL · 7 ATHENS · 8 KARAOKE

Next step Print a middle school word searchTry the hard crossword

All 153 clues

Show all clues and answers

School Life 29

  • Citation Credit given to a source in a research paper
  • Curfew Latest time a parent lets you stay out
  • Deadline Date after which the work counts as late
  • Detention After-hours penalty served in a classroom
  • Diploma Proof of graduation, framed on many walls
  • Dormitory College residence hall whose letters rearrange to "dirty room"
  • Elective Pottery or robotics, if it is optional
  • Footnote Tiny raised number in the text leads to this
  • Freshman Ninth grader
  • Graduate To finish school, cap and gown and all
  • Internship Short stint of work that a student takes on to learn a trade
  • Junior Eleventh grader
  • Lecture Long talk by a teacher, or a scolding at home
  • Mentor Trusted, experienced adviser
  • Midterm Exam halfway through a course
  • Outline Skeleton of an essay, in Roman numerals and letters
  • Plagiarism Copying without credit, a serious offense in any class
  • Proofread To hunt for typos before turning work in
  • Resume One-page summary of your jobs and skills
  • Revise To rework a rough draft
  • Rubric Scoring chart that shows how work will be graded
  • Scholarship Money awarded to pay for college, with nothing to pay back
  • Seminar Small class built around discussion
  • Senior Twelfth grader
  • Sophomore Tenth grader
  • Thesis Main claim of an essay, usually parked at the close of the first paragraph
  • Transcript Paper trail of your grades that colleges ask to see
  • Tuition Biggest line on a college bill
  • Varsity School's top team in a sport

Music and Screens 31

  • Acoustic Played without electric amplification
  • Album Collection of songs released together
  • Amplifier Box that makes an electric guitar loud
  • Animation Cartoon-making, by hand or by computer
  • Audition Tryout for a part in a play or a band
  • Cameo Blink-and-you-miss-it role for a star
  • Cliffhanger "To be continued" moment
  • Download Pull a file off the internet and keep it
  • Emoji Winking face or thumbs-up in a text
  • Episode One installment of a series
  • Finale Last installment of a season
  • Hashtag Label that begins with the pound sign
  • Headphones Pair of small speakers worn over the ears
  • Karaoke Party pastime: grab the mic and read the lyrics as they light up
  • Meme Captioned image that spreads from phone to phone
  • Montage Series of short clips cut together to show time passing
  • Playlist Songs lined up in an order you chose
  • Podcast Audio show you subscribe to and hear in installments
  • Prequel Story set before the one that came out first
  • Remix New version of a song with the parts rearranged
  • Selfie Photo taken at arm's length, of yourself
  • Sequel Part two
  • Soundtrack Songs and score that play under the action
  • Spoiler Detail that gives away a twist
  • Stream Play a song or show online as it arrives, with nothing stored
  • Subtitle Line of translated dialogue at the bottom of the screen
  • Thumbnail Small preview image you click to play a video
  • Trailer Two-minute preview of a coming film
  • Upload Post your own photo or video to the web
  • Viral Shared so fast that millions see it within days
  • Vlog Diary kept on video

Science 30

  • Alloy Brass, bronze or steel
  • Buoyancy Force that lets a steel ship float
  • Catalyst It makes a chemical change go faster and comes out unchanged
  • Decibel Loudness unit named in part for the inventor of the telephone
  • Entropy Disorder that, physicists say, tends to grow
  • Enzyme Biological helper molecule, such as the amylase in saliva
  • Genome An organism's whole genetic blueprint
  • Hertz Cycles per second, by their official name
  • Hypothesis Testable explanation offered before an experiment
  • Inertia Tendency of a body to keep doing what it is already doing
  • Isotope Carbon-12 or carbon-14, for example
  • Joule What one watt delivers each second
  • Kelvin Scale on which water freezes at 273.15
  • Kinetic Like the energy of anything in motion, as opposed to potential
  • Mitosis How one nucleus becomes two matching ones
  • Momentum What a heavy truck has more of than a bicycle at equal speed
  • Nebula Glowing interstellar cloud, such as the one in Orion's sword
  • Neuron Cell with an axon and dendrites
  • Osmosis Water's drift through a cell membrane toward the more concentrated solution
  • Photon Massless particle that carries light
  • Plasma Glowing, electrically charged gas that stars are made of
  • Quantum Kind of leap, or the tiniest unit of energy
  • Quasar Blazing center of a far-off galaxy, fed by a giant black hole
  • Seismic Having to do with earthquakes
  • Solvent Liquid that dissolves another substance
  • Spectrum Full range of rainbow hues from a prism
  • Tectonic Kind of plate that makes up Earth's crust
  • Velocity Vector that pairs a rate of motion with a heading
  • Voltage Electrical "pressure" measured across a battery
  • Wavelength Peak-to-peak measurement of light or sound

World Places 32

  • Alps Mountains shared by France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria
  • Andes Mountain chain running the length of western South America
  • Athens Greek capital crowned by the Parthenon
  • Borneo Rainforest island divided among three countries, home to orangutans
  • Cairo Egyptian capital, a short drive from the Sphinx
  • Canberra Capital of Australia, though Sydney is far bigger
  • Danube Waterway linking Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade
  • Everest Himalayan giant between Nepal and China, the top of the world
  • Fiji South Pacific island country whose capital is Suva
  • Gibraltar Rocky British territory on the Iberian Peninsula's southern tip
  • Greenland Ice-covered giant among islands, bigger than any other
  • Hanoi Capital of Vietnam
  • Istanbul Turkish city that lies in both Europe and Asia
  • Kilimanjaro Snow-capped dormant volcano that is Africa's rooftop
  • Kyoto Old imperial capital of Japan, full of temples and shrines
  • Lima Peruvian capital on the Pacific coast
  • Lisbon Portuguese capital on the Tagus River
  • Madagascar Island country off southeast Africa, the only wild home of lemurs
  • Nairobi Kenyan capital
  • Nile Africa's great north-flowing river, lifeline of ancient pharaohs
  • Oslo Norwegian capital at the head of a fjord
  • Ottawa Canada's seat of government, beside a river of the same name
  • Panama Central American nation cut by a famous ship canal
  • Reykjavik Capital of Iceland
  • Sahara African expanse of sand and rock between the Atlantic and the Red Sea
  • Seoul South Korean capital on the Han River
  • Serengeti Tanzanian plain crossed each year by huge herds of wildebeest
  • Siberia Vast, cold region of Russia east of the Ural Mountains
  • Sicily Largest Mediterranean island, at the toe of Italy's boot
  • Suez Shortcut for ships between Europe and Asia, dug across Egypt
  • Venice Italian city of canals and gondolas
  • Wellington New Zealand's seat of government

Word Play 31

  • Acronym Word formed from initials, as scuba is
  • Acrostic Verse in which the opening letter of each line spells a message
  • Anagram "Night" is one of "thing"
  • Antonym What a thesaurus lists under "opposites"
  • Brunch Late-morning meal named by blending two others
  • Civic Having to do with a city or its citizens, in either direction
  • Cliche Phrase worn out by overuse, such as "think outside the box"
  • Desserts "Stressed" spelled backward
  • Heart Rearrange "earth" to get this pump in your chest
  • Homophone Word that sounds like another but is spelled differently
  • Jargon Shop talk that outsiders cannot follow
  • Kayak Paddled boat that is spelled the same from either end
  • Level Flat and even, forward or backward
  • Limerick Bouncy, silly verse form that often opens "There once was"
  • Mnemonic Memory trick, such as a rhyme for the order of the planets
  • Palindrome Word such as "noon" that mirrors itself
  • Pangram Phrase prized by typists for containing all 26 letters
  • Portmanteau Blend of two words, as "motel" is of motor and hotel
  • Prefix Start of a word such as "mis-" or "sub-"
  • Racecar Fast vehicle whose name reads the same from the back
  • Radar It tracks planes and reads the same backward
  • Rebus Puzzle that spells a phrase with pictures and letters
  • Riddle Brain teaser such as "What has hands but cannot clap?"
  • Silent Quiet rearrangement of the letters in "listen"
  • Slang Casual words that change with each generation
  • Smog Dirty city haze named by blending "smoke" and "fog"
  • Spoonerism Slip that swaps first sounds, turning "lighting a fire" into "fighting a liar"
  • Spork Half spoon, half fork, in name and in shape
  • Suffix Add-on such as -ly or -tion
  • Syllable "Crossword" has two of these
  • Synonym Stand-in word offered by a thesaurus

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for ages 12 to 17: school life, music and screens, science, world places and word play. Every answer is an entry in Wiktionary (en.wiktionary.org). Each capital, river, mountain and science fact was checked against English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA 4.0) in October 2026, and each anagram and palindrome was checked letter by letter. No song, show, film, game, brand or living person is named. Licence: own work

How it works

These printable crossword puzzles for teenagers are vocabulary crosswords for middle school and high school: school life, music and screens, science, world places and word play. No song, show, film, game or celebrity is named.

Read the full guide

Five sets for middle school students and up

The page opens on All, a mix of the five sets. School Life has Rubric, Citation and Sophomore. Music and Screens has Remix, Cliffhanger and Thumbnail. Science has Isotope, Osmosis and Entropy. World Places has Reykjavik, Borneo and Kilimanjaro. Word Play has anagrams, palindromes and blends: Silent, Racecar, Brunch.

Paper or screen

Print gives a criss-cross grid with a Name and Date line, free, and the key on the last page. On a phone, tap a square and type.

  • A mixed class can share one set: New puzzle gives each table a different grid.

Questions and answers

Is there a high school crossword puzzle with words to pick from?

Yes. Open More options and tick Word bank under the clues: the answers are then printed A to Z below the clues. Leave it unticked for a harder puzzle.

Do the crossword puzzles for high school students print with answers?

Yes. The answer key is the last sheet of every print, and Show all clues and answers, under the tool, lists the full bank.

Can I download crossword puzzles for middle school as a file?

Yes. Press Print and choose Save as PDF in the print window. The saved file has the grid, the clues and the key.

What ages are these teenage crossword puzzles for?

About 12 to 17, grades 7 to 12. Science and World Places lean on middle and high school courses; Word Play needs no course at all. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

More tools

Show 6 more

Browse Puzzles