Economics Terms Word Search Puzzle, from Scarcity to Tariffs

Hide this week's economics vocabulary in a grid, then print it with its answer key or with definitions as clues.

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Economics Word Search

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

0 of 16 words found

NYMXKTMONEYDTRE

DLRNAAWWYCRELEH

DNAEAREXPORTSFS

GCHESAFARIJATSB

XYTDESSOOMAXRSJ

AUZSRWMTDDNNRCS

IOBGVHTEUIEHTAO

NAUEIRCUCTLNNRU

SDDRCIHKERRPRCF

DTGQENOSRAWRUIO

TLEYSCIBTDXOOTM

UHTONOCVYEOFQYW

CONSUMERXBTIJRS

RPRICEMARKETRRY

SFSHCOSTYOOBBAH

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.

ScarcitySCARCITY
ChoiceCHOICE
NeedsNEEDS
ServicesSERVICES
CostCOST
ConsumerCONSUMER
ProducerPRODUCER
MarketMARKET
PricePRICE
TradeTRADE
ProfitPROFIT
IncomeINCOME
MoneyMONEY
BudgetBUDGET
TaxTAX
ExportEXPORT

16 of 24 words from the Economics Favorites list.

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Answer key: Economics Word Search

NYMXKTMONEYDTRE

DLRNAAWWYCRELEH

DNAEAREXPORTSFS

GCHESAFARIJATSB

XYTDESSOOMAXRSJ

AUZSRWMTDDNNRCS

IOBGVHTEUIEHTAO

NAUEIRCUCTLNNRU

SDDRCIHKERRPRCF

DTGQENOSRAWRUIO

TLEYSCIBTDXOOTM

UHTONOCVYEOFQYW

CONSUMERXBTIJRS

RPRICEMARKETRRY

SFSHCOSTYOOBBAH

SCARCITY, CHOICE, NEEDS, SERVICES, COST, CONSUMER, PRODUCER, MARKET, PRICE, TRADE, PROFIT, INCOME, MONEY, BUDGET, TAX, EXPORT

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All 148 words

Scarcity and Choice 22

Allocate To decide who gets which share of something that is limited.
Benefit What you gain from an action. Weigh it against what you give up before you decide.
Choice Picking one thing out of two or more possibilities. Every one of them has a price in things given up.
Consumer A person who buys and uses things to satisfy a wish or a need.
Cost What you give up to get something: money, time or the other thing you could have picked.
Decision The conclusion you reach after weighing what you gain against what you give up.
Economics The study of how people use scarce resources. From the Greek oikonomia, the way to run a household.
Economist A person who studies how people, businesses and countries decide what to make, buy and sell.
Economy The system in which a town, a country or the world makes, sells and buys things.
Goods Objects you can touch that satisfy a wish, such as shoes, apples and books.
Human Capital The knowledge and skills people gain through education, training and experience.

Show all 148 words (137 more)

Scarcity and Choice, continued

Incentive A reward or a penalty that nudges people to act a certain way, such as a sale price or a late fee.
Needs The wishes that come first, such as food, water, clothing and shelter.
Opportunity First word of a key two-word term: its cost is the next-best thing you gave up when you chose.
Producer A person or business that makes things or does work for others to buy.
Resources Everything used to make things: natural ones like water, human ones like workers, and tools made by people.
Scarcity Not having enough resources to make everything people want. It is the reason everyone has to choose.
Services Actions done for someone else, such as teaching a class, cutting hair or fixing a car.
Trade-off Giving up some of one thing to get more of another, such as play time for study time.
Utility The word economists use for the satisfaction a person gets from using something.
Value How much satisfaction or happiness a thing gives the person who has it.
Wants Things people would like to have, from a new bike to a haircut.

Supply and Demand 24

Auction A sale in which the highest offer wins. The name comes from a Latin word meaning I increase.
Barter Swapping things directly with no money. It only works when each side wants what the other has.
Bid An offer to pay a certain amount, called out or typed in at a sale where the highest offer wins.
Buyer The person in a deal who hands over the money and takes home the item.
Competition Sellers trying to win the same customers with a lower price, better quality or better service.
Complement An item used together with another, such as a flashlight and its batteries.
Customer A person or business that buys from a store or supplier.
Demand How much of a thing buyers are willing and able to buy at each possible price.
Elastic Describes buyers who react strongly: a small change in price causes a big change in how much they buy.
Equilibrium The point where the amount sellers offer equals the amount buyers want, so the price settles.
Exchange Handing over a thing, a service or money and getting something else back.
Haggle To go back and forth over the price of something until both sides agree.
Market Any place or arrangement, real or online, where buyers and sellers come together.
Monopoly A market with only one supplier. From the Greek monos, single, and polein, to sell.
Price The amount of money a buyer hands over for one item. Buyers and sellers set it between them.
Quantity The amount of an item, counted in units. By custom it runs along the bottom of a supply and demand graph.
Retail Selling things in small amounts straight to the people who will use them.
Seller The person in a deal who hands over the item and takes the money.
Shortage What happens when buyers want more of an item at the current price than sellers are offering.
Substitute A similar item a buyer can switch to when the price rises, such as tea in place of coffee.
Supply How much of a thing sellers are willing and able to sell at each possible price.
Surplus What happens when sellers offer more of an item at the current price than buyers want.
Trade Swapping what you have for what someone else has, with or without money.
Wholesale Selling things in large amounts to stores, which then sell them on to shoppers.

Business and Production 29

Assembly Line A factory setup in which the unfinished product moves from station to station and parts are added in order.
Capital Tools, machines and buildings: things made by people and used again and again to make other things.
Corporation A company that the law treats as a single body, separate from the shareholders who own it.
Efficiency Getting the most product out of the least time, material and waste.
Employee A person who works for someone else in return for pay.
Employer A person or business that gives jobs to others and pays them for the work.
Entrepreneur A person who takes a risk to start a new business. The word is French and was in a 1723 dictionary of commerce.
Factory A building where workers and machines make things in large numbers.
Franchise The right to open a local branch of a larger business and sell under its name.
Income Money received for providing resources: pay for work, rent for property, interest or profit.
Innovation A new idea, product or method that is put to real use.
Input Anything that goes into making a product, from flour to electricity to hours of work.
Investment Buying tools, machines and buildings now so that more can be made later.
Labor Human effort of body or mind. Adam Smith used pin making to show how dividing it up speeds the work.
Land To an economist, every gift of nature: soil, water, forests, minerals and air.
Loss What a business makes when its costs are bigger than its sales.
Output The finished things that come out of a farm, shop or factory.
Partner One of two or more people who own and run a business together.
Patent A legal right that lets an inventor stop others from making or selling an invention for a limited time.
Productivity How much a worker makes in a set time, such as loaves baked per hour.
Profit The money left over after a business has paid all the costs of making what it sells.
Raw Material A natural resource, such as timber or cotton, before a factory turns it into a product.
Revenue All the money a business takes in from sales, before any costs are taken out.
Risk The chance that a plan ends in a loss. Everyone who opens a business takes one.
Shareholder A person who owns a piece of a company and may receive part of its profit.
Skill Something a worker can do well thanks to training or practice.
Specialization Doing one job or making one product well, then trading for everything else.
Technology Knowledge and tools put to work to make things faster, cheaper or better.
Wage Pay for work, usually worked out as an hourly rate times the hours worked.

Money and Banking 25

Bank A business that takes in deposits and makes loans. The name comes from the Italian banca, a bench.
Bond A certificate of debt: a government or company borrows your money and promises to pay it back.
Budget A plan for the money coming in, going out and being saved over a set time.
Cash Money you can hold in your hand: notes and coins.
Cent A hundredth part of the base unit of money. The name comes from the Latin word for a hundred.
Coin A piece of metal money. The kingdom of Lydia struck some of the earliest, from electrum, about 600 BC.
Cowrie The small sea shell most widely used around the world as shell money.
Credit Getting money or an item now in return for a promise to pay later.
Currency The notes and coins a country uses. Paper notes first circulated in Song dynasty China.
Debt Money that is owed to someone else.
Deflation A general, lasting fall in prices across an economy.
Deposit Money put into a bank account. In the United States the FDIC, formed in 1933, insures these.
Dividend A share of a company's profit that is paid out to its owners.
Dollar Its name comes from the thaler, a silver coin first struck at Joachimsthal in Bohemia around 1520.
Federal Reserve The United States' central banking system, created on December 23, 1913, with 12 regional banks.
Gold Standard A system in which a government promised to swap its paper money for a precious metal at a fixed price.
Inflation A general, lasting rise in prices, so that the same money buys less than it did.
Interest The price of using someone else's money: borrowers pay it and savers earn it.
Investor A person who puts money into a business hoping to gain from it later.
Legal Tender Money that a government says must be accepted as payment for a debt.
Loan A sum handed over for a time on the promise that it will be paid back, usually with interest.
Mint A place where coins are made. The United States formed its own in 1792, first in Philadelphia.
Money Anything widely accepted in return for things and work. Cowrie shells once did the job.
Stock A share of ownership in a company, which can be bought and sold.
Vault The locked strongroom where notes, coins and valuables are kept.

Taxes and Government 24

Antitrust Describes laws against fixing prices and other deals that shut out competition.
Boom A stretch of fast growth, when output, jobs and new building all rise together.
Business Cycle The rise and fall of activity in an economy, measured from the start of one recession to the start of the next.
Deficit The gap when a government spends more in a year than it collects.
Depression A severe downturn that lasts for years. The Great one ran from 1929 to 1939.
Fee A set charge for one service, such as entering a park or renewing a license.
Fiscal Describes the plans a government makes about taxing and spending.
GDP Three initials for the total market value of everything a country produces in a year.
Growth A lasting rise over time in the amount a nation produces.
Infrastructure Roads, bridges, water pipes and the other basic structures that an economy runs on.
Minimum Wage The lowest hourly pay that the law allows a business to offer.
Monetary Describes the plans a central bank makes about interest rates and the amount of money in use.
National Debt The total a government owes, built up from the deficits of earlier years.
Policy A plan of action chosen by a government or a central bank.
Property Rights Legal ownership: the freedom to keep, use or sell what is yours.
Public Goods Things nobody can be shut out of and that one person can use without leaving less. A lighthouse is the classic example.
Recession A stretch of months when an economy shrinks: incomes fall and more people are out of work.
Regulation A government rule that businesses have to follow.
Social Security The United States program of old-age, survivors and disability insurance. Its founding act passed in 1935.
Stimulus Action by a government or central bank that is meant to get a slow economy growing again.
Subsidy A government payment that supports a business or a market, with nothing handed over in return.
Tax A required payment that people and businesses make to a local, state or national government.
Treasury The department that looks after a nation's money. The United States formed its own on September 2, 1789.
Unemployment Being without a job while actively looking for work.

Trade and Economic Systems 24

Advantage With the word comparative in front, it means making something at a lower cost in things given up than others can.
Capitalism A system based on private ownership of farms, factories and shops, which are run to make a profit.
Cargo Goods carried by ship, plane, train or truck.
Command Economy A system in which the government owns the resources and decides what is made and what it sells for.
Commerce The buying and selling of goods, especially on a large scale between cities or countries.
Communism A set of ideas whose goal is common ownership of property and a society without classes.
Container A standard steel box that moves goods from ship to train to truck without being unpacked.
Customs The border office that checks goods entering a country and collects the duty owed on them.
Domestic Inside a particular country. It is the D in GDP.
Embargo A government order that limits or stops buying and selling with a certain country.
Export A product made at home and sent abroad to be sold.
Free Trade Buying and selling between countries with no tariffs or quotas in the way.
Globalization The growing ties between the economies, markets and cultures of different countries.
Import A product made abroad and brought into the country to be sold.
Laissez-faire French for let do: the idea that government should leave markets alone.
Market Economy A system in which buyers and sellers decide what is made, how it is made and what it sells for.
Mixed Economy A system in which buyers and sellers make some of the decisions and the government makes others.
Poverty Not having enough income to meet basic needs.
Quota A limit on how much of a product may come into a country.
Sanctions Commercial and financial penalties that countries place on another country to press it to change course.
Socialism A set of ideas built on social ownership of farms and factories, as opposed to private ownership.
Tariff A tax on goods from abroad, paid before they may be brought into the country.
Traditional Describes an economy that runs on custom: families farm for themselves and swap things as their ancestors did.
Wealth The total value of what a person or nation owns. Adam Smith published a famous book on that of nations in 1776.

How this list was compiled: 148 economics words in 6 themed lists, chosen and defined for this site. Meanings were checked on 2026-09-19 against the Federal Reserve Education glossary, https://www.federalreserveeducation.org/glossary, and, for words it leaves out, against English Wikipedia, for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand. The origin of the word dollar was rechecked on 2026-09-20 against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaler. Licence: own work

How it works

This economics terms word search puzzle opens on 16 of 24 favorites, among them Scarcity, Market, Profit and Budget. Each of the 6 lesson lists, from Scarcity and Choice to Trade and Economic Systems, prints with its answer key.

Read the full guide

Pick the list that fits this week's lesson

The 148 words are filed under 6 lessons: Scarcity and Choice (22 words), Supply and Demand (24), Business and Production (29), Money and Banking (25), Taxes and Government (24) and Trade and Economic Systems (24). Opportunity stands in for opportunity cost, whose 15 letters would fill a row of the opening grid.

Turn the definitions into a vocabulary quiz

Tick Show clues, not words, in More options, and the sheet lists one-line meanings where the terms would be. A student reads "A market with only one supplier. From the Greek monos, single, and polein, to sell", decides it is Monopoly, then hunts for it. Free Trade and Minimum Wage are hidden without their spaces, Laissez-faire without its hyphen.

Easy Economics holds the 33 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Goods, Coin and Tax.
Hard Economics holds the 76 words of 8 letters or more. Press Hard and Entrepreneur may read right to left.
MARKET can be read inside MARKET ECONOMY, and DEBT inside NATIONAL DEBT, so each pair is split across two lists.

Questions and answers

Which terms are in the Supply and Demand list?

Twenty-four, from Supply, Demand, Price and Market to Shortage, Surplus, Equilibrium, Elastic, Substitute and Complement. Barter, Auction and Haggle are there too, for the lesson on how a price gets set.

Is this the same as a financial literacy word search?

No. This page follows the school subject: scarcity, markets, production, taxes and trade. Paychecks, credit scores, insurance and paying for college are on the financial literacy word search. Only 8 words, such as Budget and Interest, are on both.

Where do the definitions come from?

Each meaning was checked on 2026-09-19 against the Federal Reserve Education glossary, and dates and word origins against English Wikipedia. The Federal Reserve was created on December 23, 1913, and the thaler behind the word dollar was first struck in Bohemia around 1520.

What grade level is this economics puzzle for?

The opening grid suits about grades 4 to 6: 16 everyday words such as Goods, Price and Bank. Trade and Economic Systems, with Tariff, Embargo and Laissez-faire, fits middle or high school, especially when printed with clues.

All 148 words

Scarcity and Choice 22

Scarcity and Choice, continued

Supply and Demand 24

Business and Production 29

Money and Banking 25

Taxes and Government 24

Trade and Economic Systems 24

How it works

Pick the list that fits this week's lesson

Turn the definitions into a vocabulary quiz

Questions and answers

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