Genetics Crossword Puzzle

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Genetics Crossword

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Answer key: Genetics Crossword

1A2Z3MLYU4MLGTEEOANLTTD5RECESSIVEOL6DOMINAN7TR8T9GAA10RATIO11CLONETLE12GENE

Across 5 RECESSIVE · 6 DOMINANT · 10 RATIO · 11 CLONE · 12 GENE

Down 1 ALLELE · 2 ZYGOTE · 3 MUTATION · 4 MENDEL · 7 TRAIT · 8 TALL · 9 GREEN

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All 143 clues

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Heredity and Traits 28

  • Allele One of two or more versions of a DNA sequence; you get one from each parent
  • Ancestor A great-grandparent, or anyone further up the family tree
  • Calico Cat coat that is called tortoiseshell and white outside North America
  • Carrier One who can pass a hidden version to offspring without showing it
  • Codominance Pattern in which both versions show side by side, as in a coat of two pigment colors
  • Dominant Like B in a Bb plant: the version that masks its partner
  • Fraternal Word for two born together from two separate eggs
  • Gene Unit of DNA passed from parents to offspring; humans have about 20,000 protein-making ones
  • Genotype BB, Bb or bb: the pair of versions written in symbols
  • Heredity Why offspring take after parents: genetic information is handed down
  • Heterozygous Bb, but not BB or bb
  • Homozygous BB or bb, but not Bb
  • Incomplete Kind of dominance in which the offspring look in between their parents
  • Inherit What children do with their DNA: half comes down from each parent
  • Linkage Closeness of two DNA sequences on one thread, which makes them travel together
  • Locus Site in the DNA, somewhat like a street address; the plural is loci
  • Mule Its sire is a jack donkey and its dam is a mare
  • Pedigree Diagram of who is related to whom, marking those who have a characteristic
  • Phenotype What DNA and surroundings add up to: the features on show
  • Polygenic Shaped by two or more hereditary units at once, as skin color is
  • Qualitative Word for an either-or characteristic such as eye color, not a measured one
  • Recessive Like b in a Bb plant: the version whose effect is masked
  • Resemble To look like, as offspring often do a parent
  • Sibling Brother or sister, who shares about half of your DNA
  • Snapdragon Flower whose red and white parents give pink offspring
  • Trait Eye color is one, and so is blood type
  • Twins Two born together; one kind starts as a single fertilized egg that splits
  • Wild type The form of a characteristic as it usually occurs in nature

Pea Experiments and Punnett Squares 26

  • Abbey St Thomas's ___: the pea-plant monk's home, where he later became abbot
  • Assortment Law of independent ___: versions for separate characteristics are passed on independently
  • Bee Honey insect the pea-plant monk also kept and bred
  • Brno Moravian city where the pea-plant monk worked and died
  • Capital Kind of letter, such as T, written for the version that masks the other
  • Chance 1 in 4, for a BB offspring of two Bb parents
  • Dihybrid Kind of cross that tracks two characteristics, each with its own hereditary unit
  • Dwarf Very short kind of pea plant in the famous crosses
  • Factor The pea-plant monk's own word for an invisible hereditary unit
  • Filial The F in F1 stands for this word
  • Green Pea seed color that was crossed with yellow
  • Hybrid Kind of corn grown from two unlike parent lines for a bigger seed yield
  • Lowercase Kind of letter, such as t, written for the version that can be masked
  • Mendel At his monastery he made thousands of pea crosses
  • Monohybrid Kind of cross between parents that differ at one genetic site of interest
  • Nine First number in 9:3:3:1, the result of a two-characteristic cross
  • Pod Pea part whose shape and color were two of the characteristics followed
  • Probability What the cross grid is used to find for each possible kind of offspring
  • Punnett Surname on the square that predicts the offspring of a cross
  • Purple Pea flower color that was crossed with white
  • Ratio 3 to 1, for example: a comparison of two counts of offspring
  • Segregation Law of ___: the two versions of a pair separate as reproductive cells form
  • Seven Number of pea characteristics followed in the famous experiments
  • Sixteen Number of boxes in a cross grid that is 4 wide and 4 deep
  • Tall Kind of pea plant crossed with a very short kind in the famous experiments
  • Wrinkled Kind of pea seed that was crossed with the smooth kind

DNA and the Genetic Code 31

  • Adenine The A of A, T, C and G
  • Anticodon Three bases at one end of a small RNA that match a three-base word on the message
  • Backbone What the bases hang from: sugar, phosphate, sugar, phosphate
  • Code The genetic one spells out amino acids in three-letter words
  • Codon Three-base word of DNA or RNA; there are 64 different ones
  • Cytosine Base C, the partner of G
  • Deoxyribose Sugar of DNA, and the D in its name
  • Dogma Central ___: the idea that information flows from DNA to RNA to protein
  • Exon Region that ends up within the finished RNA message
  • Expression Turning the information in DNA into a function, like an on/off switch
  • Franklin Rosalind ___, whose student took the X-ray image of DNA called Photo 51
  • Guanine The G of A, T, C and G
  • Helicase Protein machine that unwinds DNA so that copying can start
  • Helix Curve of a coil spring; DNA's two strands each follow one
  • Hydrogen Kind of bond between paired bases that holds the two strands together
  • Intron Region that is cut out and does not stay in the mature RNA message
  • Ladder DNA looks like a twisted one, and each base pair is a rung
  • Messenger Kind of RNA that carries protein instructions out to the cytoplasm
  • Nucleotide One link in the long chain of a DNA or RNA strand
  • Peptide Short chain of 2 to 50 amino acids
  • Polymerase Protein machine that builds a new strand of DNA, one building block at a time
  • Promoter Region of DNA where proteins bind to begin copying into RNA
  • Replication Doubling of the DNA, so each of two new cells gets a full share
  • Ribose Sugar of RNA, and the R in its name
  • Ribosome Reader of the RNA message that strings amino acids together
  • Stop UAA, UAG or UGA: the signal that ends a protein chain
  • Thymine The T of A, T, C and G; RNA has none
  • Transcription First step from DNA to protein: the message is written in RNA
  • Transfer Kind of small RNA that links each three-base word to its amino acid
  • Translation Reading RNA to add amino acids, one by one, to a growing chain
  • Uracil The U that RNA has in place of T

Chromosomes and Cell Division 26

  • Autosome Any one of the numbered 22 pairs in a human cell, not an X or a Y
  • Centromere Pinched region that holds the two copied halves together
  • Chromatid Either of two sisters joined at a pinched region until a cell divides
  • Chromatin Mixture of DNA and proteins in a highly compact form
  • Chromosome Threadlike package of DNA; a human body cell has 46
  • Crossover Swap of DNA between a matching pair that gives new combinations
  • Daughter Word for each of the two cells made when one cell divides
  • Diploid Humans are this, with 23 from each parent in most cells
  • Fertilization Union of an egg cell with a male reproductive cell
  • Gamete An ovum is a female one
  • Genome The entire set of DNA instructions found in a cell
  • Germ ___ line: the reproductive cells that carry DNA on to offspring
  • Haploid Having a single set, as human egg cells do
  • Histone Protein that DNA wraps around to take a more compact shape
  • Homologous Word for a matching pair, one member from each parent, that swaps DNA
  • Karyotype Lab image of the full set from one cell, arranged in numerical order
  • Meiosis Division that halves the DNA packages in cells meant for reproduction
  • Metaphase Stage of division when the DNA packages can be told apart under a microscope
  • Mitosis Kind of cell division that copies the DNA packages, then shares them out equally
  • Mother Parent who hands down the DNA of the mitochondria
  • Nucleosome Repeating unit of about 150 base pairs wound around a protein core
  • Nucleus Membrane-enclosed part of a plant or animal cell where the DNA is kept
  • Somatic Word for the cells of the body other than the reproductive ones
  • Spindle Its fibers pull the copied halves to opposite sides of a dividing cell
  • Telomere Stretch of repeated DNA at each tip, which gets slightly shorter with every division
  • Zygote Fertilized egg: the single cell a new plant or animal grows from

Mutations and Genetic Technology 32

  • Amplify To turn one stretch of DNA into millions to billions of copies
  • Breed To mate chosen plants or animals for the characteristics you want
  • Clone An identical copy of an organism, a cell or a piece of DNA
  • Deletion Loss of one or more building blocks from a stretch of DNA
  • Dolly Famous sheep of 1996; the National Museum of Scotland now shows her remains
  • Drift Genetic ___: random change in how common a version is, strongest in small populations
  • Duplication Change that produces one or more extra copies of a DNA segment
  • Engineering Genetic ___: lab technologies that alter the DNA makeup of an organism
  • Enzyme Restriction ___: bacterial protein that cuts DNA at specific sites
  • Epigenetics Field that studies chemical tags which turn hereditary units up or down
  • Evolution What a species undergoes, generation after generation, as the better adapted leave more offspring
  • Forensic Word for the crime-lab use of matching two DNA samples
  • Frameshift Change that adds or removes bases in a number that is not a multiple of three
  • Gel Slab whose pores act like a sieve, letting small DNA pieces move faster
  • Insertion Addition of one or more building blocks into a stretch of DNA
  • Insulin Human hormone that engineered microbes are used to make
  • Inversion Change in which a segment breaks off and reattaches in reverse
  • Knockout Organism in which a chosen hereditary unit has been switched off on purpose
  • Marker DNA landmark with a known location, used as a signpost on a map
  • Missense Kind of DNA change that puts a different amino acid at one position
  • Mutagen Chemical or physical agent, such as ultraviolet light, that changes DNA
  • Mutation A copying error as a cell divides can cause this DNA change
  • Nonsense Kind of DNA change that ends a protein early, leaving it shortened
  • Plasmid Small circle of DNA, found in bacteria, that copies itself independently
  • Point Word for a change that adds, deletes or alters a single base pair
  • Primer Short single strand that marks where copying should begin in a lab reaction
  • Sequencing Lab technique that finds the exact order of the bases in DNA
  • Splice To join DNA from different species in the lab
  • Substitution Change in which one building block of DNA is replaced by a different one
  • Transgenic Word for a lab organism carrying one or more foreign DNA sequences
  • Variation Why no two members of a species are quite alike in their DNA
  • Vector DNA molecule used as a vehicle to carry a segment into a host cell

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for grades 7 to 10 life science, in five sets: heredity and traits, pea experiments and Punnett squares, DNA and the genetic code, chromosomes and cell division, and mutations and genetic technology. Definitions were checked against the Talking Glossary of the National Human Genome Research Institute (genome.gov), and the pea experiments in English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), in October 2026. No disease or disorder is an answer. Licence: own work

How it works

This genetics crossword puzzle prints on Letter or A4 with its answer key. The first puzzle has 12 easy words, among them Gene, Trait, Allele, Dominant and Recessive. "Like b in a Bb plant: the version whose effect is masked" is Recessive.

Read the full guide

Five sets after the easy one

Heredity and Traits has Genotype, Phenotype, Homozygous and Codominance. Pea Experiments and Punnett Squares has Monohybrid, Dihybrid, Probability and Segregation. DNA and the Genetic Code has Adenine, Codon, Transcription and Ribosome. Chromosomes and Cell Division has Meiosis, Diploid, Centromere and Karyotype. Mutations and Genetic Technology has Deletion, Frameshift, Plasmid and Transgenic.

A set for the pea-cross lesson

Pea Experiments and Punnett Squares follows the famous garden crosses: Tall and Dwarf, Purple, Wrinkled, Seven for the characteristics followed, and Ratio for 3 to 1. Capital and Lowercase are answers too, for the letters that fill a square.

  • Hand out the set DNA and the Genetic Code after a model-building lesson: Helix, Ladder, Backbone and Hydrogen name the parts the class just built.

Questions and answers

What grade is the genetics crossword puzzle for?

Easy Genetics Words suits grades 6 to 8, with answers such as Gene, Trait, Twins and Clone. The five themed sets use grade 8 to 10 unit vocabulary, such as Heterozygous and Anticodon. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

Does the genetics crossword puzzle come with an answer key?

Yes. The key prints last, on a sheet of its own: the grid filled in and the answers listed by clue number. Printing is free, with no sign-up.

What is the difference between a genotype and a phenotype?

A genotype is the pair of versions an organism carries, written in symbols such as BB, Bb or bb. A phenotype is what can be observed, such as eye color or blood type, and the environment shapes it too.

What is a Punnett square?

A diagram that biologists use to find the probability of each genotype among the offspring of a cross. It is named after Reginald Punnett. For two Bb parents it gives BB 25%, Bb 50% and bb 25%.

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