Economics Crossword Puzzle for Middle School

Print a criss-cross economics crossword of scarcity, supply and demand, business, money and trade, each with its answer key.

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Economics Crossword

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Answer key: Economics Crossword

1IM2POR3TRAOX4SD5S6CONSUMERACRREV7SC8DRIU9LIEC10PROFIT11MARKETPAYASLNNY12BUDGET

Across 1 IMPORT · 6 CONSUMER · 10 PROFIT · 11 MARKET · 12 BUDGET

Down 2 PRODUCER · 3 TAX · 4 SCARCITY · 5 SERVICES · 7 SUPPLY · 8 DEMAND · 9 LOAN

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All 158 clues

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Scarcity and Choice 21

  • Allocate Divide up what there is among those who are asking
  • Benefit What you gain from a decision
  • Choice Decision between two things when you cannot have both
  • Consumer The shopper, in the story of a loaf of bread
  • Economics Social science of how things are made, shared out and used
  • Economist Expert who studies how people make, get and use things
  • Goods Sneakers, phones and sandwiches: products you can hold in your hand
  • Incentive A store coupon is one for shoppers; a bonus is one for workers
  • Luxury Costly extra that nobody really has to have
  • Marginal Describes the gain or cost of just one more unit
  • Needs A warm coat in winter is on this list; a third pair of sneakers is not
  • Opportunity ___ cost: if you choose the movie, it is the concert you missed
  • Producer The bakery, in the story of a loaf of bread
  • Ration Share out something scarce in fixed amounts
  • Resources Everything used to make products: soil, workers, machines and more
  • Scarcity Why nobody can have everything: there is never enough to go around
  • Services Haircuts, bus rides and piano lessons, for example
  • Trade-off More time for practice means less time for games: that is one
  • Utility What a hungry person gets from the first slice of pizza, in the talk of this subject
  • Value How much something is worth to you
  • Wants A new game console and designer sneakers belong on this list

Supply, Demand and Prices 29

  • Advertise Pay for a billboard or a spot online so that shoppers notice a product
  • Auction Event where an item goes to whoever offers the most
  • Bargain Something bought for less than it is worth
  • Barter Pay for eggs with firewood, for example
  • Bid What you call out when an item is going to whoever will pay the most
  • Brand The name on the label that makes shoppers pick one soda over another
  • Buyer In the sale of a used bike, the person who rides it home
  • Ceiling Legal top limit on what may be charged
  • Commodity Basic product, such as wheat or iron ore, that is the same from every source
  • Competition Rivalry among firms to win the same shoppers
  • Complement Toothpaste to a toothbrush, or blades to a razor
  • Customer Person a shop serves
  • Demand How much of a product people are willing and able to buy
  • Discount What "20% off" gives you
  • Elastic Describes sales that stretch or shrink a lot when the tag changes
  • Equilibrium Point where the amount offered equals the amount asked for
  • Floor Legal lowest limit on what may be charged
  • Haggle Argue back and forth over what to pay
  • Market Any place, even a website, where buying and selling happen
  • Monopoly When one company is the only place to get something, it has this
  • Oligopoly A few big firms sharing nearly all the sales of a product
  • Price What the tag says you must pay
  • Retail Selling to shoppers one item at a time
  • Seller In the sale of a used bike, the person who goes home with money
  • Shortage When more of a product is asked for than is on offer
  • Substitute Product you could use in place of another, as tea for coffee
  • Supply How much of a product is offered for sale
  • Surplus When stores are stuck with more than shoppers will take
  • Wholesale Selling in bulk to stores

Business and Work 33

  • Assembly Moving ___ line: way of building cars begun in 1913, with a set task at each stop
  • Capital The oven and the mixer, in a bakery: things used to make more things
  • Corporation Kind of company that the law treats as a person of its own
  • Efficiency Doing the same job with less time, material or effort
  • Employee Someone on the payroll
  • Employer Whoever signs the paychecks
  • Entrepreneur The student who opens a lemonade stand is a small one
  • Expense Money that goes out to run a business
  • Factory Plant with machines, where raw materials go in and finished products come out
  • Franchise Arrangement by which a local owner runs one outlet of a big chain
  • Hire Take on a new worker
  • Income Paychecks, tips and gifts all add to it
  • Innovation A better way of doing something, such as a faster checkout
  • Inventory Products a store has on hand, waiting to be sold
  • Investment Buying a new oven so the bakery can sell more bread next year is one
  • Labor Human effort put into making things
  • Land In the list of what production calls for, it stands for all that nature gives
  • Layoff End of a job because the business has less work to give
  • Loss A stand that takes in $20 and spends $30 has $10 of this
  • Partnership Firm such as "Lee and Ortiz", where the owners share the gains and the bills
  • Patent What an inventor files for, to keep others from copying a new machine
  • Productivity Amount made per hour of work
  • Profit A stand that takes in $50 and spends $30 has $20 of this
  • Revenue A stand that sells 50 cups at $1 each has $50 of this
  • Risk What an owner takes on, since a new shop might fail
  • Salary Fixed yearly pay, split into equal paychecks
  • Shareholder Part owner of a company
  • Specialization Each worker sticking to the one task they do best
  • Startup Newly founded firm, often a few people with one big idea
  • Strike Workers walking off the job together, often with signs
  • Technology Tools and know-how that let more be made with less effort
  • Union Organized workers who speak to the boss with one voice
  • Wage What a worker gets for each hour on the job

Money and Banking 36

  • Account Your own record of money kept at a branch, for everyday use or for savings
  • Allowance Regular pocket money from a parent, sometimes tied to chores
  • Balance How much is left after money goes in and out
  • Bank Firm that keeps money for people and lends it out to others
  • Bond IOU from a government or company that pays back with extra later
  • Borrow Get the use of money that is not yours, promising to pay it back
  • Budget List that sets $10 for snacks, $5 for games and $5 to put away
  • Cash Paper bills and metal money, as opposed to a card
  • Cent One of 100 equal parts of the main money unit in many countries
  • Check Signed slip of paper that orders money paid from your funds
  • Coin Dime or quarter, for example
  • Collateral Something you own that is pledged in case you cannot pay back
  • Compound Describes a gain that is added in and then gains more itself
  • Counterfeit Fake, as a phony bill
  • Credit Trust that lets you take something now and pay later
  • Currency What a traveler must swap at the airport before shopping abroad
  • Debt What you are in until you have paid back all that you owe
  • Deposit Put money in for safekeeping
  • Dividend Part of what a company makes, paid out to its owners
  • Dollar Its sign is $
  • Earn What you do to get a paycheck
  • Fee Small charge added for using something
  • Insurance Protection you pay for a little at a time, in case something costly goes wrong
  • Interest Extra paid for the use of the money of someone else
  • Investor Someone who buys shares in the hope they will rise
  • Loan What a family takes out to buy a car, then pays off month by month
  • Mint Place where metal money is stamped out
  • Mortgage Lending deal used to buy a house, paid off over many years
  • Principal The amount first handed over, before any extra is added
  • Receipt Paper the cashier hands you, needed if you return the item
  • Save Hold on to money now so there is more for later
  • Stock Pieces of companies that change hands on an exchange
  • Tender Legal ___: money that the law accepts for paying what is owed
  • Vault Room with a thick steel door
  • Wealth All that someone owns, minus all that they owe
  • Withdraw Take money out

Government and the Whole Economy 22

  • Boom Time when business is brisk and jobs are easy to find
  • Cycle Business ___: the ups and downs that repeat over the years
  • Deficit A country that takes in $4 and pays out $5 runs one
  • Deflation General fall in what things cost
  • Depression Long, deep slump, like the one of the 1930s
  • Federal ___ Reserve: the system set up in 1913 that guides the money of the United States
  • Fiscal Describes plans for what a government collects and spends
  • GDP Short name for the measure of all that a country makes in a year
  • Growth Rise in how much a country produces from year to year
  • Inflation Why a candy bar that was a nickel long ago is far more today
  • Infrastructure What a nation runs on: its highways, water mains and power grid
  • Minimum ___ pay: the lowest hourly amount the law allows
  • Monetary Describes plans for the money of a country and what lending costs
  • Policy Course a government sets and follows, on spending for example
  • Poverty Not having enough money for food and a home
  • Recession Stretch of months when business slows and jobs are lost
  • Regulation Official rule, such as one that makes food labels list ingredients
  • Standard ___ of living: how much money, comfort and help the people of a place have
  • Subsidy Government money given to help a business or keep something cheap
  • Tax Part of a paycheck that goes to pay for roads, schools and the army
  • Treasury It prints the paper money and collects what citizens owe the nation
  • Unemployment When people who wish to work cannot find jobs

Trade and Economic Systems 17

  • Advantage Comparative ___: making something while giving up less than others would
  • Boycott Shoppers staying away from a store on purpose to make a point
  • Cargo Crates and barrels in the belly of a ship
  • Command ___ economy: the government decides what is made
  • Container Big metal box that stacks on ships, trains and trucks
  • Customs Officials who inspect products at the border
  • Domestic Made or happening inside your own country
  • Embargo Ban on doing business with a certain nation
  • Export Wheat grown in Kansas and sold in Egypt is one
  • Globalization Growing ties that link the economies of the world together
  • Import A car built in Japan and sold in Ohio is one
  • Mixed ___ economy: part free enterprise, part government direction
  • Quota Rule such as "only 1,000 tons of sugar may enter this year"
  • Sanctions Penalties one country places on another to change its behavior
  • Tariff Charge that a government puts on products coming in from abroad
  • Trade Buying and selling between people or countries
  • Traditional ___ economy: people make and share things the old way, as their ancestors did

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for middle school social studies, in six sets: scarcity and choice, supply, demand and prices, business and work, money and banking, government and the whole economy, and trade and economic systems. Meanings were checked against English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA 4.0), the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (bea.gov) and the Federal Reserve (federalreserve.gov), in October 2026. The clues are examples for class, not financial advice. Licence: own work

How it works

This economics crossword puzzle for middle school is a printable vocabulary crossword clued by everyday examples. The first puzzle has 12 key answers, among them Scarcity, Supply, Demand, Budget and Profit. It fits Letter or A4.

Read the full guide

Six sets after the key words

Scarcity and Choice has Opportunity, Incentive and Trade-off. Supply, Demand and Prices has Equilibrium, Shortage and Monopoly. Business and Work has Revenue, Productivity and Patent. Money and Banking has Collateral, Dividend and Mortgage. Government and the Whole Economy has Recession, Deficit and Subsidy. Trade and Economic Systems has Tariff, Embargo and the Command, Mixed and Traditional economies.

Clues a seventh grader can picture

Many clues are small scenes: a stand that takes in $50 and spends $30 has $20 of Profit, and a car built in Japan and sold in Ohio is an Import.

  • Print Key Economics Words before the unit to see what the class knows, then one themed set after each lesson.

Questions and answers

Is the economics crossword puzzle free to print?

Yes, with no sign-up. Print as many copies as your classes need; the answer key prints last, on a separate sheet.

Is this economics crossword only for middle school?

Key Economics Words is written for grades 6 to 8. The six themed sets, with answers such as Oligopoly, Fiscal and Elastic, also suit a high school economics course. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

What is the difference between scarcity and a shortage?

Scarcity is the lasting fact that resources are limited. A shortage is a situation in one market: the demand for a product exceeds its supply.

What are the four factors of production?

Land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship. Land takes in natural resources, labor is human effort, and capital is the machinery and tools used to make other things. Land, Labor, Capital and Entrepreneur are all answers.

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