Dinosaur Word Search Printable with Answer Key and Fact Clues

Press New puzzle to draw from 58 real dinosaur names plus fossil words, then print with the answer key.

Name Date

Dinosaur Word Search

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

0 of 16 words found

IIRYTOOUFONAEEE

INLBYAJKRWNANBR

GMJOKQUSGNECLAW

USSNDTRTREXYPNH

ATRBNRAKSSTGSKE

NEGFOSSILTIOEYR

OGUSWASNPINDALB

DOSTAQIHMECBHOI

OSYTRICERATOPSV

NASBTVLCMEMNWAO

EULBPONIDZEEHUR

BRVELOCIRAPTORE

EUHIGDIPLODOCUS

RSBRONTOSAURUSI

MGBHHDINOSAURIT

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.

T. rexT. REX
VelociraptorVELOCIRAPTOR
ClawCLAW
DiplodocusDIPLODOCUS
BrontosaurusBRONTOSAURUS
HerbivoreHERBIVORE
TriceratopsTRICERATOPS
StegosaurusSTEGOSAURUS
AnkylosaurusANKYLOSAURUS
NestNEST
IguanodonIGUANODON
JurassicJURASSIC
ExtinctEXTINCT
FossilFOSSIL
BoneBONE
DinosaurDINOSAUR

16 of 24 words from the Dinosaur Favorites list.

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Easy: words go across and down.

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Show clues, not words

Word list

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Answer key: Dinosaur Word Search

IIRYTOOUFONAEEE

INLBYAJKRWNANBR

GMJOKQUSGNECLAW

USSNDTRTREXYPNH

ATRBNRAKSSTGSKE

NEGFOSSILTIOEYR

OGUSWASNPINDALB

DOSTAQIHMECBHOI

OSYTRICERATOPSV

NASBTVLCMEMNWAO

EULBPONIDZEEHUR

BRVELOCIRAPTORE

EUHIGDIPLODOCUS

RSBRONTOSAURUSI

MGBHHDINOSAURIT

T. REX, VELOCIRAPTOR, CLAW, DIPLODOCUS, BRONTOSAURUS, HERBIVORE, TRICERATOPS, STEGOSAURUS, ANKYLOSAURUS, NEST, IGUANODON, JURASSIC, EXTINCT, FOSSIL, BONE, DINOSAUR

Next step Build a puzzle from your own dinosaur list Scramble the same dinosaur words

All 120 words

Meat-Eating Dinosaurs 19

Allosaurus Its name means different lizard. This big hunter of the Late Jurassic was named in 1877.
Baryonyx Its name means heavy claw, after the very large claw on its first finger. It was found in 1983 in Surrey, England.
Carnivore An animal that eats meat. The word comes from Latin words for meat and to devour.
Carnotaurus A meat eater from South America with 2 thick horns above its eyes. It is known from one skeleton, found in 1984.
Claw Velociraptor had a curved one shaped like a sickle on each back foot, held up off the ground as it walked.
Coelophysis A hunter up to 3 meters long from the Late Triassic, among the earliest dinosaurs known. Many skeletons have been found.
Compsognathus Its name means dainty jaw. It grew to about the size of a chicken, and lizards found inside its fossils show what it ate.
Deinonychus Its name means terrible claw. Studying it in the late 1960s made scientists rethink what dinosaurs were like.
Dilophosaurus Its name means two-crested lizard. It lived in the Early Jurassic, and its bones were first found in Arizona in 1940.

Show all 120 words (111 more)

Meat-Eating Dinosaurs, continued

Giganotosaurus Its name means giant southern lizard. It was found in Argentina in 1993 and grew 12 to 13 meters long.
Jaw The biting part of the skull. In Tyrannosaurus the tip of the upper one was shaped like a U.
Megalosaurus Named in 1824, it was the first dinosaur to get a scientific name. The name means great lizard, and the bones came from England.
Predator An animal that kills and eats other animals. Allosaurus was a big one of the Late Jurassic.
Prey The animal a hunter catches and eats. Velociraptor may have used its big toe claws to hold it down.
Spinosaurus Spines at least 1.65 meters long formed a sail on its back. It had a skull like a crocodile and lived by the water in North Africa.
T. rex The famous short name of Tyrannosaurus. Its second half is the Latin word for king.
Teeth Camarasaurus had ones shaped like spoons. Iguanodon was named for ones that looked like those of an iguana.
Tyrannosaurus One of the last dinosaurs of western North America. Short arms with 2 clawed fingers, and the strongest bite known for any land animal.
Velociraptor Its name means swift thief. It was about the size of a turkey, had feathers, and lived in Asia about 75 to 71 million years ago.

Long-Necked Dinosaurs 16

Amargasaurus Two rows of tall spines ran down its neck and back. It was small for its group, 9 to 13 meters long, and lived in Argentina.
Apatosaurus Its name means deceptive lizard. This giant of the Late Jurassic grew 21 to 23 meters long and was named in 1877.
Argentinosaurus One of the largest land animals known, 30 to 35 meters long. A farmer found its first bone in 1987.
Brachiosaurus Its name means arm lizard, because its front legs were longer than its back legs. It lived in North America in the Late Jurassic.
Brontosaurus Its name means thunder lizard. For years it was counted as a kind of Apatosaurus, until a 2015 study found it was different.
Camarasaurus No dinosaur turns up more often in the Morrison Formation of the western United States. Its teeth were shaped like spoons.
Diplodocus Its name means double beam. About 55 percent of its length was tail, which was long and thin like a whip.
Dreadnoughtus Its name means fears nothing. This 26 meter giant from Argentina is known from a more complete skeleton than other huge titanosaurs.
Herbivore An animal that feeds on plants. Triceratops, Stegosaurus and all the long-necked giants were this kind of eater.
Mamenchisaurus A plant eater from China. Its neck made up nearly half of its total body length.
Neck Sauropods had a very long one, along with a long tail, a small head and 4 thick legs like pillars.
Patagotitan A giant from Patagonia in Argentina, named in 2017 and known from at least 6 young adults.
Plateosaurus Its name means broad lizard. It lived in Europe in the Late Triassic, an early relative of the giant long-necked dinosaurs.
Saltasaurus The first dinosaur of its long-necked group found with armor: bony plates set in its skin. Its name means lizard from Salta.
Sauropod A member of the long-necked group whose name means lizard-footed. The group holds the largest animals ever to live on land.
Tail Stegosaurus had spikes on the end of its own, Ankylosaurus had a club, and Diplodocus had one like a whip.

Armored and Horned Dinosaurs 19

Ankylosaurus Its name means fused lizard. Bony armor plates covered its body, and its tail ended in a heavy club.
Armor Ankylosaurs wore it as bony plates set in the skin. Scientists call the plates osteoderms.
Borealopelta Its name means northern shield. Found at a mine in Alberta and named in 2017, the fossil keeps its armor, skin and last meal.
Club Ankylosaurus swung a large one at the tip of its tail.
Dome Pachycephalosaurus had one on top of its head: a roof of solid bone more than 20 cm thick.
Euoplocephalus An armored dinosaur from Alberta, Canada, about 5.3 meters long. Its first fossil was found in 1897.
Frill The wide bony sheet that swept back from the head of Triceratops. Styracosaurus had long spikes on its own.
Horn Triceratops had 3 on its face. Carnotaurus, a meat eater, had 2 above its eyes.
Kentrosaurus Its name means prickle lizard. It is a relative of Stegosaurus that was found in Tanzania.
Minmi A small armored plant eater from Australia, 120 to 112 million years old. It was found in Queensland in 1964.
Plate Stegosaurus had upright ones shaped like kites standing along its back.
Protoceratops Its name means first horned face. This small relative of Triceratops from Mongolia was 2 to 2.5 meters long.
Psittacosaurus Its name means parrot lizard. With 9 to 11 accepted species, it has more kinds than any other dinosaur outside the birds.
Spike Stegosaurus had 4 on its tail, each about 60 to 90 cm long. In 1982 a cartoonist named the set a thagomizer.
Stegoceras A dome-headed dinosaur of North America, 2 to 2.5 meters long. Its name means horn roof.
Stegosaurus Its name means roof lizard. Upright plates shaped like kites ran along its back, and its tail ended in spikes.
Styracosaurus Its name means spiked lizard. It had 4 to 6 long spikes on its frill and a nose horn that may have been 60 cm long.
Torosaurus Its name means perforated lizard. Its frilled skull, up to about 3 meters long, is among the longest of any land animal.
Triceratops Its name means three-horned face. It had a large bony frill and lived 69 to 66 million years ago, at the very end of the dinosaur age.

Feathered Dinosaurs 16

Anchiornis Its name means near bird. It had 4 wings and is known only from Liaoning, China, in rocks about 160 million years old.
Archaeopteryx Its name means ancient wing. About the size of a magpie, it lived some 150 million years ago where southern Germany is today.
Bird The only kind of dinosaur alive today. Fossils show that it evolved from small feathered theropods.
Citipati Fossils from Mongolia show adults sitting on nests of eggs with their arms spread around the edge.
Deinocheirus Its name means horrible hand. From 1965 it was known only from a pair of arms 2.4 meters long. Fuller skeletons came in 2014.
Egg Every dinosaur is thought to have hatched from one. Science first recorded fossil ones in France in 1859.
Feather Many dinosaurs had these, not just birds. Knobs on an arm bone of Velociraptor show where they were attached.
Gallimimus Its name means chicken mimic. This ostrich dinosaur from Mongolia grew about 6 meters long, the largest of its family.
Microraptor A small dinosaur with 4 wings. Fossils from Liaoning, China, show long feathers on its arms, legs and tail.
Nest Many dinosaurs built one for their eggs. Young Maiasaura were fed by their parents before they left it.
Oviraptor Its name means egg thief, but that was a mistake. The first one found was sitting on its own nest, not robbing it.
Sinosauropteryx Named in 1996. No dinosaur outside the bird line had been found with signs of feathers before it. Its tail was banded.
Therizinosaurus Its name means scythe lizard. Its hand claws were over 50 cm long, the longest known for any land animal, yet it ate plants.
Troodon Found in 1855, among the first dinosaurs discovered in North America. Scientists took it for a lizard until 1877.
Wing Microraptor and Anchiornis each had 4, because long feathers grew on their legs as well as their arms.
Yutyrannus Its name means feathered tyrant. This relative of Tyrannosaurus from China is the largest dinosaur found with feathers preserved.

Duckbills and Plant Eaters 16

Beak Horned dinosaurs had one for biting off plants. Psittacosaurus means parrot lizard because of its own.
Corythosaurus Its name means helmeted lizard, after the tall crest on its skull. One fossil kept prints of its scaly skin.
Crest Dilophosaurus had 2 on its skull. Corythosaurus had a tall one shaped like a helmet.
Duckbill A nickname for a hadrosaur. The bones of its snout were flat, like the beak of a duck.
Edmontosaurus Its name means lizard from Edmonton. This duck-bill was one of the last dinosaurs and lived beside Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus.
Hadrosaurus Its name means bulky lizard. Dug up in New Jersey in 1858, it became the first dinosaur skeleton ever mounted, in 1868.
Herd A large group that moves together. Bone beds in Montana show that Maiasaura gathered in ones of up to 10,000.
Hypsilophodon A small plant eater with a sharp beak, 1.5 to 2 meters long. Its fossils come from the Isle of Wight in England.
Iguanodon Its name means iguana tooth. Named in 1825, it was the second dinosaur to get a scientific name.
Lambeosaurus A duck-bill with a hollow crest high above its eyes. It was named in 1923 to honor the fossil scientist Lawrence Lambe.
Leaellynasaura A small plant eater from Dinosaur Cove in Australia. Its 1989 name honors the daughter of the couple who found it.
Maiasaura Its name means good mother lizard. It was found in Montana in 1978 beside nests of its young.
Ouranosaurus A plant eater from Niger, 7 to 8.3 meters long. Long spines held up a big sail along its back.
Parasaurolophus A duck-billed dinosaur over 9 meters long. Its crest formed a long curved tube that may have been used to make sounds.
Shantungosaurus The largest duck-billed dinosaur known, about 15 to 17 meters long. Its name means Shandong lizard, after a part of China.
Thumb Iguanodon had a large spike on each one. Early drawings put the spike on its nose by mistake.

Age of Dinosaurs 16

Asteroid A rock from space. One about 10 km across struck what is now Mexico a little more than 66 million years ago.
Conifer A tree that bears cones. Trees of this kind made up a large part of the forests of the Jurassic.
Crater The buried one at Chicxulub in Mexico is about 200 km across. A rock from space made it about 66 million years ago.
Cretaceous The last and longest period of the dinosaur age, ending 66 million years ago. Its name comes from the Latin for chalk.
Cycad A seed plant with a stout trunk and a crown of stiff leaves, often mistaken for a palm. It was common in the dinosaur age.
Era A huge span of time. The Mesozoic one ran from 252 to 66 million years ago and is split into 3 periods.
Extinct Gone for good. About 66 million years ago three quarters of plant and animal species died out, and so did every dinosaur except birds.
Fern A plant with no seeds or flowers that spreads by spores. In the Jurassic, herds of long-necked dinosaurs filled prairies of it.
Jurassic The middle period of the dinosaur age, about 201 to 143 million years ago. The Jura Mountains gave it its name.
Mesozoic The era from 252 to 66 million years ago, nicknamed the Age of Dinosaurs. It is split into 3 periods.
Pangaea A supercontinent of the early dinosaur age, shaped like a letter C. About 175 million years ago it started to split up.
Period A span of time inside an era. The Mesozoic has 3: the Triassic, the Jurassic and the Cretaceous.
Plesiosaur A sea animal of the dinosaur age, but not a dinosaur. It swam with 4 long flippers, and some kinds had a very long neck.
Pterosaur A flying animal of the dinosaur age, but not a dinosaur. Its wing was skin stretched from a very long fourth finger to the ankle.
Reptile Dinosaurs belong to this group of animals, along with the lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodiles of today.
Triassic The first and shortest period of the dinosaur age, from about 252 to 201 million years ago.

Fossil Hunting 18

Amber Fossilized tree resin. It sometimes holds small animals and bits of plants that were trapped while it was sticky.
Bone Theropods, the group that holds Tyrannosaurus and the birds, are known for hollow ones.
Cast When sediment fills the hollow left by a vanished shell or bone, it hardens into this copy of the original shape.
Coprolite Fossil dung. The name comes from Greek for dung stone, and it shows scientists what an animal ate.
Dig The work of uncovering fossils at a site. One in Utah began in 1909 after 8 bones from the backbone of an Apatosaurus were spotted.
Dinosaur The name means terrible lizard. Sir Richard Owen coined it in 1842.
Footprint A track that turned to rock. It is a trace fossil: a record of what an animal did, not part of its body.
Fossil Any preserved remains, print or trace of a living thing from a past age. The word comes from Latin for obtained by digging.
Gastrolith A stone swallowed so that it grinds up food inside the stomach. Long-necked dinosaurs seem to have used them on tough plants.
Mold The hollow left in rock when buried remains dissolve away. It keeps the outside shape of the living thing.
Museum Where mounted skeletons go on show. The first dinosaur one ever mounted went on display in Philadelphia in 1868.
Paleontology The scientific study of life in the past, mainly through fossils.
Quarry A place where rock is dug out. Dinosaur National Monument was set up in 1915 to protect a famous one in Utah.
Sediment Loose sand, silt or mud carried by water, wind or ice. Remains covered by it soon after death have a chance to fossilize.
Skeleton All the bones of a body. The most complete Tyrannosaurus yet found, discovered in 1990, has about 85 percent of its own.
Skull The bones of the head. Horned dinosaurs such as Torosaurus had some of the longest of any land animal, up to about 3 meters.
Strata Layers of rock or sediment. The word for a single layer is stratum.
Trackway A row of fossil tracks left by one animal. From it, scientists work out how fast a dinosaur walked or ran.

How this list was compiled: 58 of the 120 words are dinosaur genus names, each found on 2026-09-19 in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dinosaur_genera. T. rex is hidden as TREX. Pterosaur and Plesiosaur are not dinosaurs, and their clues say so. Sizes, dates and name meanings come from each word's English Wikipedia article; the Torosaurus, Skull, Dome and Psittacosaurus clues were corrected on 2026-09-20. Licence: own work

How it works

This dinosaur word search printable opens on 16 words, T. rex, Triceratops and Fossil among them, hidden across and down on a 15 by 15 grid. Press Print or save as PDF and the answer key follows the puzzle.

Read the full guide

Five lists of dinosaurs, two of science words

Start from a list, under the puzzle, sorts the dinosaurs five ways: Meat-Eating, Long-Necked, Armored and Horned, Feathered, and Duckbills and Plant Eaters. Age of Dinosaurs adds words such as Jurassic and Pangaea; Fossil Hunting adds Amber and Coprolite. Easy Dinosaurs holds 32 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Egg, Claw and Horn. Hard Dinosaurs holds 66 of 8 to 13. Longer names, Parasaurolophus at 15 letters among them, stay in their themed lists.

Fact clues in place of names

Tick Show clues, not words in More options and each word gives way to its fact. "Its name means roof lizard" sends pupils to Stegosaurus, and "Fossil dung" to Coprolite.

Long names are easier in chunks: pupils find SAURUS first, then check the letters in front of it.
After the hunt, sort the words into meat eaters, plant eaters and non-dinosaurs such as Pterosaur and Plesiosaur.
Bird sits in Feathered Dinosaurs on purpose. Its clue begins "The only kind of dinosaur alive today".

Questions and answers

Are the dinosaur names real and spelled correctly?

Yes. 58 entries are genus names found on Wikipedia's List of dinosaur genera in September 2026. T. rex, the one short form, is hidden as TREX.

Can I add a dinosaur that is not on the list?

Yes. Type your own over any word in the list under the grid. Pachycephalosaurus has 18 letters, and the grid grows to 18 by 18 to fit it.

Which dinosaur word find list suits first and second grade?

Easy Dinosaurs. Its 32 words stop at 5 letters, and only two are dinosaur names: T. rex and Minmi, a small armored plant eater from Australia. The rest are words like Egg, Bone and Nest.

All 120 words

Meat-Eating Dinosaurs 19

Meat-Eating Dinosaurs, continued

Long-Necked Dinosaurs 16

Armored and Horned Dinosaurs 19

Feathered Dinosaurs 16

Duckbills and Plant Eaters 16

Age of Dinosaurs 16

Fossil Hunting 18

How it works

Five lists of dinosaurs, two of science words

Fact clues in place of names

Questions and answers

More tools