Genetics Word Search Printable

Print 16 genetics terms with an answer key, or swap in the DNA list, inheritance words or lab words.

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Genetics Word Search

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0 of 16 words found

MMRLGDSBGMTODMM

USGTQYEIARTQNEU

KSEOTFQRMYEYAIT

GENEAPUYETMPVOA

JTORSMEPTROKGST

DOMINANTEALRRII

OREPLICATIONESO

DTWINHERITANCEN

PRIESOERPUNNETT

CHROMOSOMEROSMU

EITLAIIZAHPRSRO

VPUPHENOTYPEIEW

CIMTNYOIIUANVRE

HRUPTSSHFEEFEMF

BCLONINGEEOQDRA

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InheritanceINHERITANCE
TraitTRAIT
DominantDOMINANT
RecessiveRECESSIVE
PhenotypePHENOTYPE
PunnettPUNNETT
DNADNA
SequenceSEQUENCE
ReplicationREPLICATION
GeneGENE
ChromosomeCHROMOSOME
GenomeGENOME
MutationMUTATION
MeiosisMEIOSIS
GameteGAMETE
CloningCLONING

16 of 22 words from the Genetics Key Terms list.

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Answer key: Genetics Word Search

MMRLGDSBGMTODMM

USGTQYEIARTQNEU

KSEOTFQRMYEYAIT

GENEAPUYETMPVOA

JTORSMEPTROKGST

DOMINANTEALRRII

OREPLICATIONESO

DTWINHERITANCEN

PRIESOERPUNNETT

CHROMOSOMEROSMU

EITLAIIZAHPRSRO

VPUPHENOTYPEIEW

CIMTNYOIIUANVRE

HRUPTSSHFEEFEMF

BCLONINGEEOQDRA

INHERITANCE, TRAIT, DOMINANT, RECESSIVE, PHENOTYPE, PUNNETT, DNA, SEQUENCE, REPLICATION, GENE, CHROMOSOME, GENOME, MUTATION, MEIOSIS, GAMETE, CLONING

Next step Solve heredity clues in a biology crossword Follow mutation into the evolution word search

All 107 words

Traits and Inheritance 23

Allele One variant of a gene at a particular spot on a chromosome.
Assortment With the word independent: different traits are inherited separately from each other.
Carrier Has inherited a recessive allele but usually does not show the trait.
Codominance When two different variants both show their traits in one individual.
Cross A planned mating of two parents, such as the ones Mendel made between pea plants.
Dihybrid A cross that follows two traits at once; Mendel found a 9:3:3:1 ratio.
Dominant Describes a variant that masks the effect of a different variant of the same gene.
Genotype The alleles an individual carries for a particular gene.
Heterozygous Having two different alleles at one locus.
Homozygous Having two alleles that are the same at one locus.
Inheritance The passing of genetic information from parents to their offspring.
Mendel The friar in Brno whose pea experiments of 1856 to 1863 set out the rules of heredity.
Monohybrid A cross that follows one trait.
Parent One of the two that pass genetic information on in sexual reproduction.
Pea plant What Mendel bred; he followed seven of its characteristics, such as seed shape.

Show all 107 words (92 more)

Traits and Inheritance, continued

Pedigree chart A diagram of a trait through the generations of a family; squares are males, circles females.
Phenotype The set of observable traits of an organism.
Punnett The English geneticist whose square diagram of 1905 predicts the genotypes of a cross.
Ratio Mendel's one-trait crosses gave an idealized one of 3 to 1.
Recessive Describes a variant whose effect is masked when a different one is present.
Segregation The random parting of a pair of alleles when gametes are made.
Trait An observable characteristic of an organism, such as eye color.
True-breeding Describes the kind of plants Mendel started his crosses with.

DNA and the Genetic Code 23

Adenine The base written A; it pairs with T.
Antiparallel Running in opposite directions, as the two strands do.
Backbone The alternating chain of sugar and phosphate along each strand.
Base pair Two bases, one on each strand, held together by hydrogen bonds.
Chain One of the two long strings of nucleotides that coil together in DNA.
Cytosine The base written C; it pairs with G.
Deoxyribose The sugar in every nucleotide of DNA.
DNA Two chains coiled into a double helix; it carries the genetic instructions of living things.
Double helix The shape of DNA: two strands coiled around each other.
Genetic code The rules a cell uses to turn triplets into proteins; a table of 64 entries.
Guanine The base written G; it pairs with C.
Helicase An enzyme that separates the two strands of the helix.
Messenger The kind of RNA that matches a gene's sequence and is read by a ribosome.
Phosphate The group that joins the sugar of one nucleotide to the next.
Polymerase An enzyme that reads an existing strand and builds a new one to match.
Protein A chain of amino acids, linked in the order that a gene's message sets.
Replication The process by which a cell makes exact copies of its DNA.
RNA A nucleic acid that uses the bases G, U, A and C; one kind is a template for making proteins.
Sequence The order of the bases along a strand.
Sugar One of the three parts of a nucleotide, with a base and a phosphate.
Template What each old strand serves as when its new partner is built.
Thymine The base written T; it pairs with A.
Triplet Three nucleotides read together; another word for a codon.

Genes and Chromosomes 20

Autosome Any chromosome that is not a sex chromosome; humans have 22 pairs.
Chromosome A package of DNA that holds part or all of an organism's genetic material.
Deletion A mutation in which a segment of DNA is lost.
Duplication A mutation that repeats a section of DNA, sometimes a large one.
Gene A basic unit of heredity; a stretch of DNA that is copied into RNA.
Genome All the genetic information of an organism.
Hemizygous Having only one allele at a locus because the other is missing.
Histone A protein that acts as a spool for DNA to wind around.
Homologous Describes the two chromosomes of a pair, which swap material in meiosis.
Insertion A mutation in which a segment of DNA is added.
Inversion A mutation that reverses the direction of a segment of a chromosome.
Karyotype The look of a complete set of chromosomes: their sizes, numbers and shapes.
Locus The fixed position on a chromosome where a particular gene sits.
Mutagen Something that causes mutations.
Mutation A change in the sequence of an organism's genome.
Pairs Human body cells hold 23 of these, 46 chromosomes in all.
Substitution A mutation in which one piece of the sequence is swapped for another.
Telomere The region of repeated sequence at each end of a chromosome.
Variant A different version of a sequence; each allele is one.
X-linked Describes a gene carried on the X chromosome, such as one for red-green color blindness.

Meiosis and Passing Genes On 19

Crossing over The swap of genetic material between the chromosomes of a pair during meiosis.
Egg cell The female gamete.
Eye color In humans, an example of an inherited characteristic.
Family tree A simple name for a chart of a trait through a family's generations.
Father The Y chromosome passes only from him to a son.
Fertilization The fusing of two gametes into one cell.
Fuse What two gametes do at fertilization.
Gamete A sex cell; it fuses with another one at fertilization.
Germ cell A cell that goes through meiosis to make gametes.
Identical Having the same genome, as clones do.
Meiosis The special cell division that makes gametes: two rounds of division, four cells.
Mother Males and females both keep one of her X chromosomes.
Ovum Another name for an egg cell; the plural is ova.
Recombinant Describes a chromosome that carries swapped material after crossing over.
Recombination A reshuffling of genetic material that gives offspring new combinations of traits.
Somatic Describes a body cell, as opposed to a sex cell.
Synapsis The pairing-up during meiosis in which crossing over takes place.
Twins The identical kind form when a fertilized egg splits; they carry the same DNA.
Zygote The cell formed when two gametes join.

Genetics in the Lab 22

Amplify To make many copies of a stretch of DNA, as PCR does.
Barcoding DNA analysis meant to identify a species instead of an individual.
Breeder A person who chooses which animals or plants will have offspring together.
Cloning Producing organisms with identical genomes, by natural or artificial means.
Dolly The sheep that in 1996 became the first mammal cloned from an adult body cell.
Engineering With the word genetic: changing an organism's genes using technology.
Epigenetics The study of changes in gene activity that do not alter the DNA sequence.
Fingerprint A nickname for the DNA profile of one individual.
Forensic Describes DNA work done for criminal investigations.
Gel What DNA fragments move through in an electric field; shorter ones travel farther.
Geneticist A scientist who studies genes and heredity.
GMO Short for genetically modified organism.
Insulin A human protein first made by genetic engineering in 1978.
Mule The offspring of a horse and a donkey, normally sterile, with 63 chromosomes.
PCR A lab method, invented in 1983, that quickly makes many copies of a DNA sequence.
Plasmid A small DNA molecule, usually a ring, apart from the chromosome; common in bacteria.
Primer A short single strand of DNA that matches the target region in PCR.
Profiling Working out the DNA characteristics of one individual.
Selective Describes breeding in which people choose the parents for particular traits.
Sequencing Reading the order of the bases; a project that started in 1990 did it for humans.
Transgenic Describes an organism given genetic material from another species.
Vector What an artificial plasmid serves as when it carries DNA into a host.

How this list was compiled: Own work: the word list and every clue were written for this page. The facts in the clues were checked on 2026-10-07 against English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), among them the articles on genetics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics), Mendelian inheritance (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendelian_inheritance), DNA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA), the chromosome (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromosome) and meiosis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis). Licence: own work

How it works

This genetics word search, printable with its answer key, follows a unit in order: traits and inheritance, DNA and its code, genes and chromosomes, meiosis, and the lab. That makes 107 terms in all.

Read the full guide

A DNA word search, printable on its own

Pick DNA and the Genetic Code under Start from a list and the sheet prints under that title. Its 23 words include the four bases, Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosine, with Double helix, Base pair, Backbone, Replication, Helicase and Polymerase.

Inheritance words and the lab words

Traits and Inheritance has 23 terms: Allele, Dominant, Recessive, Genotype, Phenotype, Homozygous, Heterozygous, Punnett and Pedigree chart among them. Genetics in the Lab has 22, from Cloning and Plasmid to PCR, GMO and Dolly. Easy Genetics keeps to 18 words of 3 to 5 letters; Hard Genetics collects 39 of 9 to 12.

Pedigree chart, Double helix and Crossing over each hide as one run of letters: PEDIGREECHART.
X-linked hides without its hyphen, as XLINKED.

Questions and answers

What is the difference between genotype and phenotype?

The genotype is the set of alleles an organism carries; the phenotype is its set of observable traits. Genotype contributes to phenotype, and the environment shapes it too.

What is the difference between dominant and recessive?

A dominant variant of a gene masks the effect of a different variant on the other copy of the chromosome; the masked variant is recessive. A carrier has a recessive allele and usually does not show the trait.

What are the four bases of DNA?

Adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine, written A, T, G and C. A pairs with T, and C pairs with G. All four are in DNA and the Genetic Code.

Who discovered the rules of inheritance?

Gregor Mendel, a friar in Brno, first made genetics a scientific study. His pea plant experiments of 1856 to 1863 followed seven characteristics, such as seed shape and flower color, and set out rules of heredity.

Does the genetics word search have an answer key?

Yes, as page 2 on Letter or A4. For a vocabulary check, tick Show clues, not words, and Allele prints as "One variant of a gene at a particular spot on a chromosome."

All 107 words

Traits and Inheritance 23

Traits and Inheritance, continued

DNA and the Genetic Code 23

Genes and Chromosomes 20

Meiosis and Passing Genes On 19

Genetics in the Lab 22

How it works

A DNA word search, printable on its own

Inheritance words and the lab words

Questions and answers

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