History Crossword Puzzles Printable and a Black History Set

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History Crossword

Read each clue and write the answer in the squares that start at its number, one letter in each square.

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Answer key: History Crossword

1M2LA3TINU4EH5MOATRMG6CROWNYLN7DE8CADE9TOOM10F11LAGPEAAG12CASTLESND

Across 2 LATIN · 5 MOAT · 6 CROWN · 7 DECADE · 10 FLAG · 12 CASTLE

Down 1 MUMMY · 3 THRONE · 4 EAGLE · 8 COMPASS · 9 TOGA · 11 LEGEND

Next step Find history words in a word searchScramble this unit's history words as a warm-up

All 160 clues

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Ancient World 33

  • Alexander Macedonian ruler called the Great, who conquered lands from Greece to India before his death in 323 BC
  • Aqueduct Roman channel, often carried on arches, that brought water to a city
  • Athens Greek city-state known as the birthplace of rule by the people
  • Babylon City on the Euphrates ruled by Hammurabi, famous for his code of laws
  • Bronze Alloy of copper and tin that names the age between stone and iron
  • Caesar Julius ___, general who crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC
  • Colosseum Largest amphitheater of the ancient world, opened in AD 80 and still standing in Italy
  • Confucius Chinese teacher born about 551 BC whose ideas stress respect, family and learning
  • Cuneiform Wedge-shaped writing pressed into wet clay tablets
  • Hieroglyph One picture sign of ancient Egyptian writing
  • Latin Language of the Romans, parent of Spanish, French and Italian
  • Marathon Battlefield of 490 BC that gave its name to a long road race
  • Maya People of Central America who built stepped temples and kept a complex set of calendars
  • Mesopotamia Land of the Tigris and the Euphrates; its Greek name means between rivers
  • Mummy Body dried, wrapped in linen and preserved in ancient Egypt
  • Nile River whose yearly flood fed the farms of ancient Egypt
  • Olympics Games first held at Olympia, by tradition in 776 BC
  • Papyrus River reed pressed into sheets for writing in ancient Egypt
  • Parthenon Marble temple of Athena on the Acropolis
  • Pharaoh Title of the rulers of ancient Egypt
  • Pompeii Town buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79
  • Pyramid Stone tomb with a square base and four triangular sides; the greatest stand at Giza
  • Rome City on the Tiber founded, by tradition, in 753 BC
  • Rosetta The ___ Stone, found in 1799, carries three versions of one decree
  • Senate Roman governing council whose name comes from senex, meaning old man
  • Silk Chinese cloth that gave its name to the trade road to the West
  • Socrates Athenian thinker who taught by asking questions and left no writings of his own
  • Sphinx Giza statue with the body of a lion and the head of a human
  • Stonehenge Ring of standing stones on Salisbury Plain in England
  • Terracotta Baked clay of the thousands of life-size soldiers buried near the first emperor of China
  • Toga Draped woolen garment that Roman men wore over a tunic
  • Wall China's Great ___, built and rebuilt over many centuries along the northern border
  • Zeus Chief of the Greek gods, honored at the ancient games of Olympia

Middle Ages and Exploration 29

  • Armada Spanish fleet of 1588 sent against England
  • Armor Metal suit worn in battle
  • Aztec People whose island capital Tenochtitlan stood where Mexico City is now
  • Castle Fortified home of a lord, with towers and thick walls
  • Cathedral Bishop's church, often the tallest building of a medieval city
  • Charter Document of rights: John of England sealed the Great one at Runnymede in 1215
  • Columbus Sailor from Genoa who crossed the Atlantic for Spain in 1492
  • Compass Magnetic direction finder, invented in China, that guided ships out of sight of land
  • Feudalism Medieval system in which land was held in return for loyalty and service
  • Galileo Italian who found four moons of Jupiter with his telescope in 1610
  • Gutenberg German who printed a Bible with movable metal type about 1455
  • Hastings Battle of 1066 won by William the Conqueror
  • Inca Andean people whose mountain city Machu Picchu still stands
  • Joust Contest in which two riders charge each other with lances
  • Knight Armored soldier on horseback who served a lord
  • Leonardo Painter of the Mona Lisa, who also filled notebooks with flying machines
  • Magellan Leader of the fleet that first sailed around the world, 1519 to 1522; he died on the way
  • Mali West African realm of Mansa Musa, who made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324
  • Moat Water-filled ditch around a fortress
  • Mongol People of the steppe united by Genghis Khan in 1206
  • Plague Disease that swept Europe from 1346 to 1353 as the Black Death
  • Polo Marco ___, Venetian merchant whose book described his travels to China
  • Renaissance Rebirth of art and learning that began in Italy; the word is French
  • Samurai Member of the warrior class of old Japan
  • Serf Farm worker bound to a lord's land, not free to leave
  • Shogun Title of the military rulers of Japan; the last one gave up the office in 1867
  • Tapestry The Bayeux ___, nearly 70 meters of embroidery, tells the story of 1066
  • Timbuktu Trading city near the Niger River, famed for its scholars and manuscripts
  • Viking Scandinavian seafarer of the years 793 to 1066

American History 33

  • Amendment Formal change to the nation's plan of government; 27 have been ratified
  • Anthony Susan B. ___, arrested in 1872 for casting a ballot, later pictured on a dollar
  • Apollo Program that landed the first people on the Moon in July 1969
  • Armstrong Neil ___, first person to walk on the Moon
  • Cherokee Nation whose member Sequoyah completed a writing system for its language in 1821
  • Colony Settlement ruled by a distant country; Britain had thirteen along the Atlantic coast
  • Congress Lawmaking branch of the United States government, made of two houses
  • Constitution Plan of government written in Philadelphia in 1787 and still in force
  • Declaration Document adopted on July 4, 1776, that announced a new nation
  • Eagle Bald bird on the Great Seal of the United States
  • Edison Inventor of Menlo Park: the phonograph and a practical light bulb
  • Ellis Island in New York Harbor where millions of immigrants arrived between 1892 and 1954
  • Flag Its 13 stripes stand for the colonies that became the first states
  • Franklin Benjamin ___, Philadelphia printer, inventor and diplomat
  • Gettysburg Pennsylvania town, site of a three-day Civil War battle in July 1863 and of a famous speech that November
  • Gold Metal found at Sutter's Mill in 1848 that set off a rush to California
  • Jamestown First lasting English settlement in North America, founded in Virginia in 1607
  • Jefferson Main author of the 1776 break with Britain, and the third president
  • Lewis Meriwether ___, who set out with William Clark in 1804 to reach the Pacific
  • Lexington Massachusetts town where the Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775
  • Liberty The ___ Bell hangs in Philadelphia; the Statue of ___ stands in New York Harbor
  • Lincoln Sixteenth president, who led the country through the Civil War
  • Louisiana Territory bought from France in 1803 that about doubled the size of the country
  • Mayflower Ship that carried 102 passengers to Plymouth in 1620
  • Oregon Trail of more than 2,000 miles that families followed from Missouri to the Pacific Northwest
  • Pilgrim Passenger of 1620 who helped found Plymouth in Massachusetts
  • Railroad The transcontinental one was joined at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869
  • Sacagawea Shoshone woman who crossed the West with the Corps of Discovery and interpreted for it
  • Suffrage Right to take part in elections, won by American women nationwide in 1920
  • Tea Cargo thrown into Boston Harbor in December 1773
  • Wagon Covered vehicle pulled by oxen on the trails west
  • Washington First president of the United States, 1789 to 1797
  • Wright Surname of Orville and Wilbur, who flew at Kitty Hawk in 1903

Black History 35

  • Abolition Movement to end slavery
  • Anderson Marian ___, contralto who sang to a crowd of more than 75,000 on Easter Sunday 1939
  • Angelou Poet who wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and read at the 1993 presidential inauguration
  • Banneker Benjamin ___, self-taught astronomer who published almanacs in the 1790s
  • Bethune Mary McLeod ___, who opened a school for girls in Daytona Beach in 1904
  • Boycott Refusing to buy or use something as a protest
  • Carver George W. ___, plant scientist who urged farmers to grow peanuts and sweet potatoes to restore the soil
  • Chisholm Shirley ___ of Brooklyn, first Black woman elected to the United States House, in 1968
  • Coleman Bessie ___, who earned her pilot's license in France in 1921
  • Douglass Frederick ___, who escaped slavery in 1838 and became a famous speaker, writer and editor
  • Drew Charles ___, surgeon whose research on storing plasma made large blood banks possible
  • Emancipation Setting free: the word that names the Proclamation of January 1, 1863
  • Greensboro North Carolina city where four students began a lunch counter sit-in on February 1, 1960
  • Harlem New York neighborhood at the center of a 1920s flowering of Black art, music and writing
  • Henson Matthew ___, Arctic explorer on the 1909 expedition that claimed the North Pole
  • Hughes Langston ___, poet of 1920s New York who wrote The Weary Blues
  • Johnson Katherine ___, NASA mathematician who checked the orbit numbers for John Glenn's 1962 flight
  • Juneteenth Holiday of June 19, for the day in 1865 when freedom was announced in Galveston, Texas
  • King Martin Luther ___ Jr., minister who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964
  • Latimer Patent draftsman and inventor of a better process for making the carbon filaments of light bulbs
  • Marshall Thurgood ___, first Black justice of the Supreme Court, from 1967
  • Montgomery Alabama capital where riders stayed off the city buses from December 1955 to December 1956
  • Morgan Garrett ___, inventor of a safety smoke hood and, in 1923, a traffic signal
  • Owens Jesse ___, who won four events at the 1936 Games in Berlin
  • Parks Rosa ___, arrested on December 1, 1955 for keeping her seat on a city bus
  • Revels Hiram ___, first Black United States senator, seated in 1870
  • Robinson Jackie ___, who broke the color line of major league baseball in 1947
  • Selma Alabama city where the 1965 voting rights march to the state capital began
  • Smalls Robert ___, who sailed a Confederate transport ship out of Charleston Harbor to freedom in 1862
  • Truth Sojourner ___, the name Isabella Baumfree chose in 1843 before traveling to speak against slavery
  • Tubman Harriet ___, who escaped slavery in 1849 and went back again and again to guide others north
  • Tuskegee Alabama town whose institute opened in 1881 and whose airfield trained the first Black military pilots
  • Walker Madam C. J. ___, who built a hair-care company and a fortune in the early 1900s
  • Wheatley Phillis ___, whose 1773 book of poems was the first published by an African American author
  • Woodson Carter G. ___, scholar who launched Negro History Week in February 1926

Historian's Words 30

  • Ancestor Family member who lived long before you
  • Archive Place where old records and documents are kept
  • Artifact Object made by people long ago and studied today
  • Century Period of 100 years
  • Citizen Legal member of a country
  • Coin Small metal disc of money; old ones help to date a dig
  • Crown Jeweled headwear of a monarch
  • Decade Period of 10 years
  • Democracy Government by the people; the word comes from Greek
  • Diary Daily record of a person's life, a favorite find of historians
  • Dynasty Line of rulers from one family, such as the Han or the Ming
  • Election Event in which citizens choose their leaders
  • Empire Group of lands and peoples under one ruler
  • Era Long stretch of time with a name of its own, in three letters
  • Historian Person who studies and writes about the past
  • Legend Old story handed down that may or may not be true
  • Map Drawing of a place seen from above
  • Monarchy Government headed by one hereditary ruler
  • Monument Statue or structure built so that a person or event is remembered
  • Museum Building where objects from the past are kept and shown
  • Republic State in which power rests with elected representatives, not a monarch
  • Revolution Sudden overthrow of a government, or any sweeping change
  • Ruins What is left of a building that fell down long ago
  • Scroll Rolled sheet of writing, the book of the ancient world
  • Settler Person who moves to a new land to make a home
  • Source Primary ___: a letter, photo or object from the time being studied
  • Tax Money that a government collects from people
  • Throne Ceremonial chair of a monarch
  • Timeline Line that shows events in the order they happened
  • Treaty Written agreement between nations, often one that ends a war

How this list was compiled: 160 clues written for this site. Every person named is a public historical figure who has died; death years, and every clue that states a fact of history, were checked against English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) in September 2026. Traditional dates say by tradition. Wars appear as dates and places with no description of violence, and no quotation is used. Licence: own work

How it works

These history crossword puzzles, printable on Letter or A4, include a Black History set of 35 clues in which every person named has died. They are vocabulary crosswords, and the page opens on 12 clues such as Pyramid and Tubman.

Read the full guide

The Black History set: 26 people, no one living

The Black History set has 26 people answered by surname, from Anderson to Woodson, and 9 places, events and ideas such as Juneteenth, Selma and Boycott. Every person has died, most recently Katherine Johnson in 2020, and no clue quotes anyone.

Four more sets, from Giza to the Moon

Ancient World has Cuneiform, Aqueduct and Terracotta. Middle Ages and Exploration runs from Armada to Viking, American History from Jamestown to Apollo, and Historian's Words teaches Archive, Dynasty and Treaty. Easy History Clues gathers the familiar answers from all five. Each press of New puzzle draws a fresh grid from the set you picked.

  • Surname answers reward research: hand out the Black History set with library books and have pairs confirm each person before writing the name.
  • Historian's Words suits the first week of the year, so Artifact, Century and Source are in place before the first unit.
  • Press Add another clue for a longer puzzle, or the cross beside a clue for a shorter one. Ticking Word bank under the clues there helps with surname spellings.

Questions and answers

Are the Black history crossword puzzles printable on their own?

Yes. Choose the Black History set and every puzzle is drawn from its 35 clues alone, which suits February or a civil rights unit. The answer key prints last, and the line that starts "Print gives" has the page count.

Which grades are the clues written for?

Easy History Clues suits about grades 3 to 5, with answers such as Map, Castle and Washington. The themed sets suit grades 5 to 8, and Hieroglyph, Mesopotamia and Emancipation are among the long ones. These bands are our judgement, not a published standard.

Why do two clues say by tradition?

Because nobody recorded those dates at the time. Ancient historians computed 753 BC for the founding of Rome long afterward, and 776 BC for the first Olympic Games was reckoned later too. A recorded date, such as July 4, 1776, carries no such wording.

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