Endocrine System Crossword Puzzle

Print a criss-cross vocabulary crossword on the endocrine system, from the pituitary and the thyroid to insulin and adrenaline.

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Endocrine System Crossword

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Answer key: Endocrine System Crossword

1P2ANCREASDR3PE4MELATONINNTA5E6MU7T8GLANDE9CIHDSOTY10BLOODSTREAMRCETRORNIY11INSULINGSDNEO12TARGETRL

Across 1 PANCREAS · 4 MELATONIN · 8 GLAND · 10 BLOODSTREAM · 11 INSULIN · 12 TARGET

Down 2 ADRENAL · 3 PITUITARY · 5 ENDOCRINE · 6 MESSENGER · 7 THYROID · 9 CORTISOL

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All 135 clues

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Glands and Where They Sit 34

  • Abdomen Part of the body, below the chest, where the long organ behind the stomach lies
  • Adrenal One sits on top of each kidney
  • Alpha Kind of cell behind the stomach that answers low blood sugar with a hormone
  • Anterior Front lobe of the pea-sized organ under the brain; it makes growth hormone
  • Atria Upper chambers of the heart, whose walls make a hormone of their own
  • Beta Kind of cell behind the stomach that answers high blood sugar with a hormone
  • Cortex Outside part of the organ above a kidney; a person cannot live without it
  • Ductless Word for organs that pass hormones straight into the blood, with no tubes
  • Epithalamus Part of the brain, near its center, that holds the tiny cone-shaped organ
  • Exocrine Word for an organ that sends its product out through a tube, as those that make sweat do
  • Follicle Tiny sphere, lined with cells, in which the butterfly of the neck makes its hormones
  • Gland Organ that makes and releases hormones
  • Hypophysis Another name for the pea-sized organ under the brain
  • Hypothalamus Brain region about as big as an almond that ties the nerves to the hormone system
  • Islets Scattered patches of hormone-making tissue in the organ behind the stomach
  • Isthmus Slim bridge of tissue between the two halves of the butterfly in the neck
  • Larynx Voice box; the butterfly-shaped organ sits just below it
  • Lentil Seed that each of the tiny calcium-raising bodies in the neck resembles
  • Medulla Inner part of the organ above a kidney, switched on by nerve impulses
  • Paired How the organs above the kidneys come: one on each side
  • Pancreas Long, soft organ that lies across the back of the belly
  • Parathyroid One of the tiny bodies, usually four, in the neck that raise the calcium level of the blood
  • Pineal Tiny cone-shaped organ deep in the brain
  • Pituitary Pea-sized organ at the base of the brain
  • Posterior Back lobe of the pea-sized organ under the brain; nerves run it
  • Pyramid Shape of the right-hand organ above the kidney; the left one is a crescent
  • Sphenoid Part of the skull with a hollow in which the pea-sized organ rests
  • Stalk Slender stem by which the pea-sized organ hangs from the brain
  • Sternum Breastbone; an immune-training organ lies just behind it
  • Suprarenal Another name for the organ above a kidney
  • Thymus Chest organ whose hormone helps build the immune system
  • Thyroid Neck organ with two wings, like a butterfly
  • Trachea Windpipe; one half of the butterfly-shaped organ lies on each side of it
  • Vascular Rich in blood vessels, as the butterfly-shaped organ is

Hormones and Their Jobs 29

  • ACTH Four letters for the hormone that switches on the outer layer above the kidney
  • ADH Short name of the hormone that makes kidney tubules take water back
  • Adrenaline Fight-or-flight hormone
  • Aldosterone Hormone that makes the body hold on to sodium and water
  • Calcitonin Hormone from the butterfly-shaped organ that lowers the level of a mineral in the blood
  • Cholesterol Waxy molecule from which the hormones of the outer layer above the kidney are built
  • Cortisol Hormone from above the kidneys that raises blood sugar
  • Epinephrine The fight-or-flight hormone, by its other name
  • EPO Three letters for the kidney hormone that calls for more red blood cells
  • Gastrin Hormone from the stomach lining that calls for acid when food arrives
  • Ghrelin Hormone of an empty stomach that makes a person want to eat
  • Glucagon Hormone released when blood sugar runs low, to bring it back up
  • Insulin Hormone that lowers blood sugar
  • Iodine Element the butterfly-shaped organ needs to build its hormones
  • Leptin Hormone made by fat cells that signals how much energy the body has in store
  • Melatonin Hormone the brain releases at night
  • Oxytocin Hormone that makes a nursing mother's milk flow
  • Parathormone The hormone that matters most for blood calcium, by its shorter name
  • Peptide Class of hormone, built from amino acids, to which the sugar-lowering one belongs
  • Potent Word for hormones: very small amounts have big effects
  • Prolactin Hormone that tells a mother's body to make milk
  • Secretin Hormone from the small intestine that calls for a fluid to neutralize stomach acid
  • Somatotropin Growth hormone, by its longer name
  • Steroid Chemical family of every hormone made in the outer layer above the kidney
  • Thymosin Hormone of the chest organ that trains the immune system
  • Thyroxine Main hormone of the butterfly-shaped organ, also written T4
  • Tropic Word for a hormone whose job is to make another organ release its own hormone
  • TSH Three letters for the hormone that switches on the butterfly-shaped organ
  • Vasopressin Water-saving hormone, also called antidiuretic hormone

Signals, Receptors and Feedback 29

  • Antagonism When one hormone opposes or reverses the effect of another
  • Bind What a hormone does to its matching site on a cell
  • Bloodstream Hormones ride in it to far-off organs
  • Circadian Word for the body's roughly 24-hour rhythm, which the night hormone helps keep
  • Circulate To travel round the body in the blood, as hormones do
  • Distant Where a hormone's work is done, as seen from the organ that made it
  • Endocrine The ___ system works by hormones
  • Feedback Negative ___ turns a hormone's release back down
  • Half-life Time in which the amount of a hormone in the blood falls by 50 percent: about a week for T4
  • Homeostasis The body's self-kept balance, which hormones help to maintain
  • Key What a hormone is, if the cell site it fits is called a lock
  • Liver Organ that, with the kidneys, breaks most hormones down
  • Loop Circuit of cause and effect by which a hormone turns its own release down
  • Membrane Cell's outer boundary, which a lipid-soluble hormone can pass through
  • Messenger A hormone is a chemical one
  • Metabolism All the chemical work of the body; hormones of the butterfly-shaped organ set its pace
  • Nervous The body's other control system: the ___ system, quick and short-acting
  • Receptor Site on a cell that a hormone must fit
  • Regulate To control or adjust, as hormones do for growth
  • Seconds Unit that measures how long a nerve's effect lasts; hormones take minutes, hours or weeks
  • Secrete To make and release a hormone
  • Signaling Hormones are a class of ___ molecules: they carry a message between cells
  • Specific Word for hormone action: only the cells with the matching site respond
  • Stability What negative control gives the body: a state that holds steady
  • Stimulus A nerve ___ can make an organ release its hormone directly
  • Surface Part of a cell where a water-soluble hormone meets its docking site
  • Synergism When two hormones have the same effect and the result is amplified
  • Target A hormone acts only on its ___ cells
  • Thermostat Household device that, like the body, turns a furnace or cooler on and off to hold a level steady

Blood Sugar, Stress and Sleep 20

  • Bone Hard tissue whose calcium a hormone from the neck helps to control
  • Clock The body has a built-in one that keeps its daily rhythms on time
  • Danger What the fight-or-flight response gets the body ready to face
  • Darkness What switches on the making of the night hormone
  • Eye Organ where the nerve pathway that times the night hormone begins
  • Fatigue Tiredness, a state that the brain region above the pea-sized organ controls
  • Glucose Blood sugar, by its chemical name
  • Glycogen Form in which blood sugar is put away in a large organ of the belly until a hormone calls for it
  • Heartbeat It quickens in a fight-or-flight moment, so more blood is pumped out each minute
  • Height What a child's growth hormone most visibly affects
  • Hunger Feeling that the almond-sized brain region controls, with body heat and tiredness
  • Jet lag Out-of-step feeling after a long flight, until the body's daily rhythm matches local time
  • Morning Time of day, around waking, when the sugar-raising hormone from above the kidneys peaks
  • Muscle Tissue that takes sugar out of the blood when the sugar-lowering hormone comes
  • Pupils Dark openings that widen when the fight-or-flight hormone is released
  • Sleep What the night hormone helps the body time
  • Stress What the organs above the kidneys answer with a burst of hormones
  • Temperature Body ___: how warm a person is, which the almond-sized brain region controls
  • Thirst The need to drink, set by the same brain region that runs the pea-sized organ
  • Urine Less water is lost in it when the water-saving hormone is at work

Discoveries and Word Origins 23

  • Banting Canadian who, with Charles Best, first isolated the sugar-lowering hormone
  • Bayliss Co-finder, in 1902, of the gut hormone that switches on digestive juices
  • Bernard French physiologist, first name Claude, who developed the idea of a controlled inner environment
  • Cannon American who coined the word for the body's steady inner state in 1926
  • Descartes 17th-century philosopher who called the brain's tiny cone the principal seat of the soul
  • Excite What the old root of the word hormone means: to arouse or ___
  • Flesh The name of the organ behind the stomach comes from words for all and ___
  • Greek Language of the word behind hormone, which means setting in motion
  • Island Meaning of insula, the root of the sugar-lowering hormone's name
  • Langerhans German anatomist who found the hormone-cell clusters behind the stomach in 1869
  • Latin Language of insula and of sella turcica
  • Macleod Professor in whose laboratory the sugar-lowering hormone was first isolated
  • Nobel Award of 1923 that honored the finding of the sugar-lowering hormone
  • Pine cone Its shape gave the brain's tiny night-hormone organ its name
  • Saddle The bony seat of the pea-sized organ is the sella turcica: Turkish ___
  • Sanger He worked out the amino acid sequence of the sugar-lowering hormone in the early 1950s
  • Separate One meaning of 'krine', the back half of the hormone system's name
  • Shield What the name of the butterfly-shaped organ means, after its shape
  • Starling British physiologist who coined the word hormone in 1905
  • Takamine Japanese chemist who patented a purified extract of the organs above the kidneys in 1901
  • Toronto Canadian city where the sugar-lowering hormone was first isolated, in 1921
  • Wharton Anatomist who gave the butterfly-shaped organ its modern name in 1656
  • Within Meaning of 'endo', the first half of the hormone system's name

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for a school unit on the endocrine system, in five sets after a basics set. Glands, hormones and how they are controlled were checked against the SEER Training Modules of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (training.seer.cancer.gov) and English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) in October 2026. No illness or treatment is an answer, the ovaries and testes are left out, and no clue is health advice. Licence: own work

How it works

This printable endocrine system crossword puzzle fits Letter or A4, answer key included. The first puzzle has 12 basic words, among them Gland, Pituitary, Thyroid, Adrenal, Pancreas and Insulin. Hormone is in most clues, so it is never an answer.

Read the full guide

Five sets after the basics

Glands and Where They Sit has Hypothalamus, Parathyroid, Islets and Isthmus. Hormones and Their Jobs has Glucagon, Thyroxine, Oxytocin and Aldosterone. Signals, Receptors and Feedback has Homeostasis, Antagonism and Half-life. Blood Sugar, Stress and Sleep has Glycogen, Darkness and Jet lag.

Names and dates a class can check

Discoveries and Word Origins runs from 1656, when the thyroid got its modern name, to the 1950s: Starling, who coined the word hormone in 1905, Banting and Toronto in 1921, Langerhans, and the meanings of insula (Island) and thyroid (Shield).

  • Print Glands and Where They Sit beside a diagram of the body, and Hormones and Their Jobs the day after its lesson.

Questions and answers

What grade is the endocrine system crossword puzzle for?

Endocrine System Basics suits grades 6 to 8, with answers such as Gland, Insulin, Target and Messenger. The five themed sets use high school anatomy vocabulary, such as Hypophysis and Antagonism. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

Does the endocrine system crossword puzzle have an answer key?

Yes. The key is the last sheet of every print: the grid filled in and each answer beside its clue number. Printing is free, with no sign-up.

What are the major glands of the endocrine system?

The pituitary, pineal, thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal glands, with the hypothalamus, the pancreas and the thymus, which do other jobs too. The ovaries and testes are endocrine glands as well; this puzzle leaves them out.

What is the difference between endocrine and exocrine glands?

Endocrine glands are ductless: they release hormones straight into the blood. Exocrine glands, such as sweat glands, carry their product to a surface through a duct. The pancreas does both. Ductless and Exocrine are both answers.

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