Groundhog Day Word Search Printable for February 2, Shadow or Not
Print shadow words and their answer key for the February 2 class vote, or press New puzzle for another grid.
Name Date
Groundhog Day Word Search
Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.
0 of 16 words found
EOUMSZJESIXNGGS
SDOERSOSDYAYRDL
HTWUDRCOBURROWE
ALHHITUNNELHUIE
DWINTERELEGENDP
ONBOELLHCLOUDYA
WWEEKSDWJMFIHRL
JPREDICTTSMIOUM
TONOBAOSPRINGSC
DRALNGRETOVSNMU
HLTHEDOTWIFELPZ
IIETNJNWNRSAERF
LURHXNEHPAZRLNF
LFORECASTDPLJWO
AWGYESPRGSIYCDB
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.
GROUNDHOG
BURROW
TUNNEL
HIBERNATE
SLEEP
SHADOW
CLOUDY
FORECAST
PREDICT
WINTER
SPRING
EARLY
SIX
WEEKS
LEGEND
HILL
16 of 24 words from the Groundhog Day Favorites list.
Tap or click the first letter of a word, then its last letter. Or drag across the word. On a touch screen, hold the first letter for a moment before you drag. On a keyboard, the arrow keys move, Enter marks the first and the last letter, and Escape clears a first letter.
BurrowAn underground home dug in the soil. This animal's usually has two to five entrances.
ChucklingA young woodchuck. The same word means laughing quietly.
ClawsBroad and long on the front feet, they make this animal a fast worker in the soil.
CloverA small plant with leaves in threes. Woodchucks eat every variety of it.
DandelionA yellow flower of lawns and fields. It is an important food for woodchucks when they first wake up.
DigTo scoop out soil. A woodchuck moves about 6 cubic feet of earth to make one home.
FatBuilt up all summer and fall. It is the only food a woodchuck has until the plants grow back.
FoxA red one hunts woodchucks, and its family may later move into a home that a woodchuck has left.
FurThe thick coat of hair that keeps a mammal warm.
GrassThe main food of a woodchuck, which can eat more than a pound of plants in a day.
GroundhogA big ground squirrel of North America and the star of February 2. It is also called a woodchuck.
Show all 98 words (87 more)
Groundhog Facts, continued
HeartbeatIn the long cold-season rest it slows to between 4 and 10 a minute.
HibernateTo spend the cold months in a deep sleep. Woodchucks are among the few animals that truly do it.
IncisorsThe four front gnawing teeth. They grow about a sixteenth of an inch each week, and chewing wears them back down.
MammalA warm-blooded animal with hair or fur that feeds its young on milk.
MarmotOne of 15 kinds of large ground squirrel. Most live among rocks and mountains. The star of February 2 is the lowland kind.
NestThe sleeping room at the end of the passage, lined with dead leaves and dried grasses.
PupsBaby woodchucks. Most litters have three to five, born in April or May.
RodentA gnawing mammal. Mice, beavers and squirrels all belong to this group.
SleepWhat a woodchuck does from about October until March or April, in a room dug below the frost line.
SwimmerSomething this heavy animal is, to many people's surprise. It can go up a tree as well.
TailShort on this animal: only about a quarter of the length of its body.
TeethFour at the front do the gnawing. Unlike those of many rodents, a woodchuck's are white.
TorporA state in which the body almost shuts down. A woodchuck drifts in and out of it from fall until March or April.
TunnelA long underground passage. One that a scientist measured ran 24 feet, not counting its side passages.
WhistleThe high, sharp alarm call a woodchuck gives when it spots danger.
WoodchuckAnother name for the same animal. It comes from an Algonquian word, wuchak, and has nothing to do with wood.
Shadow and Forecast 27
AccuracyHow often a forecast turns out right. For groundhogs, a 2021 study found it no better than chance.
CloudyGray, so that nothing casts a shadow. The legend reads this as good news.
ColdLow in temperature. The legend is all about how much longer the days will stay this way.
EarlySooner than expected. It is how spring arrives when the groundhog sees no shadow.
EmergeTo come out into the open, as a woodchuck does from its burrow.
EquinoxOne of two days a year when day and night are nearly equal. The one in March, usually the 20th, begins spring.
FebruaryThe second month. Groundhog Day is always on its second day.
FolkloreThe traditional stories, sayings and beliefs of a people. Weather sayings are one kind.
ForecastA statement of what the weather will probably do next.
FrostIce crystals on cold ground. A woodchuck digs its cold-season bedroom below the line it reaches.
LegendAn old story handed down, which may or may not be true.
OvercastCovered with gray cloud from edge to edge.
PeekA quick look, like the one a groundhog takes outside its hole.
PredictTo say what will happen before it does.
RhymeA short verse with matching sounds. Much old weather lore was passed on in this form so it was easy to remember.
ShadowThe dark shape your body makes when it blocks the sun. Seeing one on February 2 means more cold, the legend says.
SixThe number of extra weeks of cold that a shadow is said to bring. In the old German version it was four.
SnowFrozen white flakes. In Pennsylvania there is often plenty on the ground on February 2.
SolsticeThe shortest or the longest day of the year. February 2 falls about halfway between the December one and spring.
SpringThe season of new leaves. No shadow on February 2 means it will come early, the legend says.
SunnyBright and clear. An old Scots rhyme says that if February 2 is like this, there will be two winters in the year.
SunshineBright light from a clear sky. On February 2 it is bad news, because it lets a groundhog see its shadow.
SuperstitionA belief that one event brings luck or trouble when there is no real link between the two.
ThawThe time when ice and frozen ground turn soft and wet again.
WeatherSun, rain, wind, snow and everything else the sky does from day to day.
WeeksStretches of seven days. Forty-two days make six of them.
WinterThe cold season. The legend says a shadow on February 2 brings six more weeks of it.
Punxsutawney 16
AcaciaA tree of warm countries. The Inner Circle president's cane is made of its wood and is said to let him understand the groundhog.
CeremonyA formal event with set steps. Punxsutawney's dates from 1887 and was called off only once, in 1943.
ClubThe Punxsutawney Groundhog one was formed in 1899. It cares for the animal and keeps the record of every forecast.
CrowdA large gathering of people. Punxsutawney, a town of fewer than 6,000, has drawn as many as 40,000 on February 2.
DawnFirst light. The Punxsutawney event begins well before it, in the dark of a February morning.
DiaryThe earliest known mention of Groundhog Day is a February 2, 1840 entry in one kept in Morgantown, Pennsylvania.
ElixirA magic drink. The story goes that a sip each fall keeps the Punxsutawney groundhog alive year after year.
GobblerA male turkey. The word is in the name of the hill where the Punxsutawney forecast is made.
HillA small rise of ground. The Punxsutawney forecast is made on one, about 2 miles southeast of the town.
LenapeThe Native American people whose language gave Punxsutawney its name.
MosquitoesSmall biting insects. The Lenape name behind Punxsutawney means town of these, or town of the sandflies.
NewspaperThe Punxsutawney Spirit, the town's own, printed the first report of a Groundhog Day there in 1886.
PennsylvaniaThe state where Groundhog Day began, among German-speaking settlers.
PunxsutawneyThe Pennsylvania town with the best-known Groundhog Day ceremony, about 84 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
ScrollA rolled-up paper. Two are written before the event, one for each forecast, and the right one is read aloud.
TuxedoA formal black suit. The Inner Circle, the group that runs the Punxsutawney event, wears one with a top hat.
Old World Roots 13
BadgerThe animal that did the forecasting in Germany. Its German name is Dachs.
BearThe first forecasting animal in German lore. When it grew scarce, people watched the badger.
CandlemasA Christian feast on February 2. Old sayings tied its weather to how long the cold season would last.
CandlesWax lights. On February 2 many Christians take theirs to church to be blessed for the year.
CroatiaHere and in Serbia the story tells of a bear that wakes, meets its shadow and goes back to bed for 40 days.
DutchThe Pennsylvania ones were German-speaking settlers, and they brought the February 2 legend to America.
GermanyThe country the legend came from. There, a sunny February 2 meant four more weeks of cold.
HedgehogA small spiny animal. In Irish lore, seeing one out on February 1 was a sign of mild days to come.
ImbolcAn old Celtic festival at the start of February, midway between the shortest day and the spring equinox.
ImmigrantsPeople who move to another country to live. German ones took Badger Day to Nova Scotia in the 1750s.
LodgeA Grundsow one is a Pennsylvania Dutch club that meets near February 2. Speak English there and you pay a small fine.
SettlersPeople who make a home in a new land. Those in Pennsylvania had no badgers to watch, so they chose the groundhog.
SnakeIn Scotland, the animal whose appearance on February 1 was said to herald spring.
Groundhog Towns 15
AlaskaThe range of the woodchuck runs from the eastern United States through Canada to this far northern state.
AtlanticThe time zone of Nova Scotia, an hour ahead of Eastern. It is why the first forecast of February 2 comes from there.
BeaverAt the zoo in Portland, Oregon, this tree-gnawing animal gives the forecast by choosing one of two treats.
CanadaThe northern neighbor of the United States, where February 2 is Groundhog Day too.
ColoradoThe state where the town of Aurora asks a yellow-bellied marmot, a mountain cousin of the groundhog.
ConnecticutThe state where a woodchuck called Chuckles first gave the town of Manchester its forecast in 1968. The name is handed on.
ManitobaThe Canadian province where Merv's Groundhog Day forecasts at Oak Hammock Marsh began in the 1990s.
MayorThe leader of a town. In Manchester, Connecticut, the woodchuck is said to whisper the forecast in this person's ear.
OhioThe state whose lawmakers named Buckeye Chuck, a forecaster from the city of Marion, their official groundhog in 1979.
OntarioThe Canadian province where the town of Wiarton holds its Groundhog Day festival.
QuarryvilleA Pennsylvania town where the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge, formed in 1907, holds a rival event.
ShubenacadieA Nova Scotia town. Its wildlife park gives the first forecast in North America each February 2, at 8 a.m.
WiartonAn Ontario town whose Groundhog Day festival goes back to 1956.
WisconsinThe state where the town of Sun Prairie calls itself the Groundhog Capital of the World.
ZooNew York City's forecasting woodchuck lives at the one on Staten Island.
How this list was compiled: 98 Groundhog Day words chosen and defined for this site, in five themed lists (the animal, the shadow legend and the weather, the Punxsutawney ceremony, the European roots of the custom, other forecasting towns) plus three cross-cutting lists: 24 favorites that open the page, the 33 short words of 3 to 5 letters and the 31 long words of 8 to 12 letters. Every entry is a single word of 3 to 12 letters with no spaces, hyphens or apostrophes. No clue contains its own word, because the clue replaces the word in clue mode. The hill Gobbler's Knob is not a grid word because its second word is on the puzzle's blocked list. No brand, team, product or fictional character name is included, and the 1993 film is not mentioned. No named animal is a grid word: the entry Phil was replaced by Hill on 2026-09-20 (generic words only), and the names Phil, Buckeye Chuck, Chuckles and Merv appear in clues only, descriptively. Definitions are our own wording for readers of about 7 to 12. Facts with a date, a place or a number in them were checked on 2026-09-19 against these English Wikipedia articles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day (February 2; shadow means six more weeks of winter, no shadow an early spring; German Badger Day with four more weeks; the bear as the earlier German animal; Pennsylvania Dutch; the Scots couplet about a fair Candlemas; hedgehog lore in Ireland and the snake in Scotland on February 1; Imbolc as a cross-quarter day; earliest mention in a diary entry of February 2, 1840, Morgantown; Punxsutawney Spirit report of 1886 and first official trip to Gobbler's Knob in 1887; Groundhog Club formed 1899; named Phil in 1961; crowds as large as 40,000 and a 2020 population of 5,769; canceled in 1943; Grundsow Lodges and the fine for speaking English; Slumbering Groundhog Lodge of Quarryville formed 1907; Chuckles in Manchester, Connecticut since 1968 and the whisper to the mayor; Staten Island Zoo; Buckeye Chuck, whose forecast is held in Marion, Ohio; Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; the yellow-bellied marmot of Aurora, Colorado; the Oregon Zoo beaver and its two treats; Manitoba Merv at Oak Hammock Marsh since the 1990s; German immigrants in Nova Scotia in the 1750s; the 2021 Lakehead University study of 530 predictions by 33 groundhogs, which found pure chance; the bear story in Croatia and Serbia), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punxsutawney_Phil (Gobbler's Knob about 2 miles southeast of town; ceremony begins well before sunrise; Inner Circle in top hats and tuxedos; acacia wood cane; a scroll prepared for each outcome; the elixir of life served at the fall Groundhog Picnic), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punxsutawney,_Pennsylvania (about 84 miles northeast of Pittsburgh; Lenape name meaning sandfly town or mosquito town), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog (also woodchuck, from Algonquian wuchak; a lowland marmot; range from the eastern United States across Canada into Alaska; four white incisors growing 1.5 mm a week; tail about a quarter of body length; burrows with two to five entrances, 6 cubic feet of earth per den, longest 24 feet; summer and winter dens; nest lined with dead leaves and dried grasses; whistle alarm; clover, dandelion and wild grasses, more than a pound a day; true hibernation from October to March or April below the frost line, heart rate 4 to 10 beats a minute, periods of torpor; litters mostly 3 to 5 born in April or May; young called chucklings; swims and climbs; red fox among predators and foxes among the animals that reuse burrows), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmot (15 species, most in mountains), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlemas (February 2; candles blessed in church), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiarton_Willie (Wiarton, Ontario; the story dates back to 1956; rechecked 2026-09-20: the death of Willie V was announced on March 10, 2026, so the Ontario clue names the festival and no animal), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckeye_Chuck (checked 2026-09-20: the animal has lived at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History since June 2023 and is brought to Marion, where the February 2 forecast is still held, so the Ohio clue says where he forecasts and not where he lives), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shubenacadie_Sam (Shubenacadie Wildlife Park, Nova Scotia; observed at 08:00 Atlantic time, the first prediction in North America) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_equinox (usually March 20). Review fix 2026-09-20 (round 3): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day read again that day (Chuckles has given Manchester, Connecticut its regional forecast since 1968; a cited source names Chuckles XI, so the name is handed on, and the Connecticut clue now says so). Review fix 2026-09-20 (round 4): the four clues that named a living animal's yearly habit now give a dated fact that cannot go out of date. Read that day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckeye_Chuck (in 1979 Ohio's General Assembly made Buckeye Chuck the official State Groundhog; he began in Marion in the 1970s), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day (Manitoba Merv's forecasts at Oak Hammock Marsh began in the 1990s, so the Manitoba clue says began in the 1990s; Chuckles in Manchester "since 1968", so the Connecticut clue says first gave its forecast in 1968) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punxsutawney_Phil (the president understands Groundhogese by magic, thanks to an old acacia wood cane he holds, so the Acacia clue says cane, keeps said to, and names no animal). Recheck each January before the season only that the Marion and Manchester customs have not ended. Licence: own work
How it works
February 2 asks one question, shadow or no shadow, and this Groundhog Day word search printable starts there: Shadow, Cloudy and Forecast are in its first 16 words. The bank of 98 adds woodchuck facts, German badgers and forecasting towns.
Read the full guide
Woodchuck facts, shadows and rival towns
Groundhog Facts and Shadow and Forecast hold 27 words each. Three lists put every word in one puzzle: Punxsutawney (16), Old World Roots (13) and Groundhog Towns (15), which runs from Wiarton in Ontario to Shubenacadie in Nova Scotia. Easy Groundhog Day has the 33 words of 3 to 5 letters. Hard Groundhog Day has 31 of 8 to 12, Hibernate and Superstition included.
A class vote before the forecast
Take a class vote before the forecast is read, then pick Shadow and Forecast in Start from a list and print. That list holds Sunny, Cloudy, Early, Six and Weeks for the tally chart. For older students, press Hard. Punxsutawney may then read backwards.
Woodchuck has nothing to do with wood: the clue traces it to an Algonquian word, wuchak.
Does your state have its own forecasting animal? Type its town at the end of the word list under the grid and the grid rebuilds.
Questions and answers
Does the printout come with an answer key?
Yes. This Groundhog Day word search free printable is two pages: the puzzle under a Name and Date line with its 16 words, then the key with every word ringed, so a substitute can mark a sheet in a minute.
How often is the groundhog right?
About half the time. A 2021 Lakehead University study of 530 predictions by 33 groundhogs found them no better than chance, a fair start for a lesson on probability. The Accuracy clue, in Shadow and Forecast, says the same.
Where did Groundhog Day come from?
In Germany the forecaster was a badger, and a sunny February 2 meant four more weeks of cold. German settlers in Pennsylvania had no badgers, so they watched the groundhog. The earliest known mention is a diary entry of February 2, 1840, from Morgantown, Pennsylvania.