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Name Date
Mardi Gras Word Search
Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.
0 of 16 words found
JTIEMGREENTXHAF
YEHRATDSCOECEYO
KYAMSASEIXOOGOS
WPHEKOLFLOATMTW
RUHEPMPRTIHWGSR
DRHTEGHLXSEURPK
MPLGOLDNCKREWEI
ALFPBBUDOUBLOON
REDCNNZHSMJURYG
DURJBNBCTRANOPY
IIEEQIETUESDAYI
YYESTSNZMNABNYG
EFTTUORLEANSADR
DGNECOPPIKOADOA
TSCROWNSTHROWSS
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.
FLOAT
KREWE
THROWS
DOUBLOON
KING
CROWN
MASK
COSTUME
JESTER
PURPLE
GREEN
GOLD
MARDI
GRAS
TUESDAY
ORLEANS
16 of 24 words from the Mardi Gras 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.
BalconyA railed platform on the front of a building. In 1872 Rex asked for every one to be draped in purple, green and gold.
BandA group of musicians. In a New Orleans second line, the crowd walks and dances behind a brass one.
BeadsStrung as necklaces, they are the most common throw. They were glass until the 1960s and are plastic today.
CaptainThe leader of a krewe. In the country run of rural Louisiana he rides a horse, in a cape, with a small flag in hand.
CoconutA hairy tropical nut. Hand-painted ones are the prized throw of one New Orleans krewe, popular with the club from the late 1940s.
DanceTo move to music. Second-lining is the free style done behind a New Orleans brass band.
DoubloonA large metal or wooden coin stamped with a krewe's emblem on one side and the year's parade theme on the other.
FlambeauA flaming light carried beside a night procession. Before electric lamps it let the crowd see the floats.
FloatA decorated platform towed through the streets with costumed riders on board. The first ones were barges on the River Thames.
Show all 99 words (90 more)
Parades and Music, continued
HandkerchiefA square of cloth for the pocket. Second-line dancers wave one in the air.
JazzThe music of New Orleans. Walking clubs cross the city on Fat Tuesday with at least one band playing it.
KreweA social club that stages a Carnival procession or ball. The spelling was coined in New Orleans as a mock old-fashioned form of crew.
MusiciansPeople who play instruments. In a second line they walk in front and the dancers follow.
NecklaceJewelry worn around the neck. Parade beads come strung as one, ready to wear the moment they are caught.
ParadeA procession through the streets. In New Orleans each one is staged by a krewe and keeps the same route every year.
ParasolA light umbrella for sun. Second-line dancers twirl one as they follow the band.
ProcessionA line of people moving forward together. Early New Orleans had masked ones on Fat Tuesday, and at times the law banned them.
RevelryNoisy, joyful celebrating. Shrove Tuesday was the last round of it before the quiet weeks that follow.
RidersThe costumed krewe members on a float. In a modern krewe any member who pays dues can be one.
SpectatorsThe people who watch. At a Carnival parade they line the streets with their hands in the air.
ThrowsThe name for everything tossed from a float to the crowd, from strings of beads to cups and small toys.
TorchA flame carried on a pole. Carriers still light some night parades, and the crowd tosses them coins in thanks.
TrinketA small, cheap ornament or toy. Float riders buy their own to toss into the crowd.
Kings, Masks and Colors 22
BallA formal dance. Krewes hold theirs, often masked and by invitation only, in the weeks before Fat Tuesday.
BellsThey jingle on a fool's cap. In England a church one once rang on Shrove Tuesday to say it was time to fry pancakes.
ClownA comic performer with a painted face. It is a popular Fat Tuesday outfit in New Orleans.
CostumeAn outfit that turns you into someone else. Clowns, fairies, animals and figures from myths are New Orleans favorites.
CrownWhat a Carnival monarch wears. In France a paper one comes with the king cake for whoever finds the hidden charm.
FaithTrust and belief. It is the meaning Rex gave to the middle Carnival color in 1892.
GlitterTiny sparkling flakes. One krewe covers shoes in it by hand, and another uses it on golden coconuts.
GoldThe third of the three Carnival colors. It stands for power.
GreenThe second of the three Carnival colors. It stands for faith.
InvitationA request to attend. Most krewe balls can be entered only with one.
JesterA court fool who wore a cap with bells and was allowed to tease the king without being punished.
JusticeFairness under the law. It is the meaning Rex gave to purple in 1892.
KingThe ruler of a krewe's parade and ball. The one chosen by Rex is called the monarch of Carnival.
MaskA face covering. On Fat Tuesday in New Orleans, the law against hiding your face in public does not apply.
MasqueradeA formal dance where every guest hides their face. Several are held in the final week of Carnival.
MysticMysterious. It is the word Mobile, Alabama, uses for its Carnival societies, one of them founded as long ago as 1867.
PowerStrength and the ability to rule. It is the meaning Rex gave to the metallic Carnival color in 1892.
PurpleThe first of the three Carnival colors. It stands for justice.
QueenThe woman who reigns over a krewe's ball. The Rex one carries the title of Carnival.
RexLatin for king. It is the name of the krewe, founded in 1872, that picked the three Carnival colors.
RoyaltyKings and queens as a group. Purple has long been their color, which may be why it leads the Carnival three.
TableauA scene staged by costumed people standing still. The first organized New Orleans celebration, in 1833, had one.
Fat Tuesday Food 20
BabyA tiny plastic one hides inside the king cake. Whoever finds it has luck, and buys next year's cake or hosts the next party.
BakeryA shop that sells bread and cakes. Most king cakes are bought at one, and New Orleans ones compete over fillings.
BeignetA square of fried dough served hot under powdered sugar, often for breakfast. The French brought it to New Orleans in the 1700s.
BreakfastThe first meal of the day. In New Orleans it may be hot beignets, and pancake ones are a Shrove Tuesday custom.
BriocheA rich French bread made with eggs and butter. King cakes were traditionally made from its dough.
CakeThe king kind is a ring of sweet dough served from Epiphany until Carnival ends, with a tiny figure hidden inside.
CinnamonA sweet brown spice from tree bark. The simplest king cake is a ring of twisted dough flavored with it.
CrawfishA small freshwater shellfish that looks like a tiny lobster. Creole cooks serve it in a sauce called etouffee.
EggsOnce given up for Lent, so cooks cracked the last of them into pancake batter on Shrove Tuesday.
FeastA large, rich meal. Fat Tuesday was the last chance for one before forty days of plain eating.
FigurineA tiny statue. The charm in a king cake began as a real bean, and in France it may now be one of these made of porcelain.
GumboThe stew-like soup of Louisiana. Its name comes from a West African word for okra.
IcingThe sweet glaze on top of a king cake. It may be colored purple, green and gold.
JambalayaA Louisiana Creole main dish of rice cooked in one pot with meat, seafood and vegetables.
MeatThe food most often given up for Lent. The Latin behind the word carnival means to remove it.
MilkAlong with butter, it was used up before the Lent fast began, which is one reason the day is called Fat Tuesday.
OrangesCitrus fruit. In Binche, Belgium, costumed performers called Gilles throw them to the crowd on Shrove Tuesday.
PralineA candy of sugar and nuts, a classic Creole sweet. It is also a king cake filling.
SprinklesTiny bits of colored sugar. Purple, green and gold ones, the Carnival colors, top a New Orleans king cake.
SugarIt had long been a major New Orleans industry, which helped local bakeries make the king cake famous.
Carnival Calendar 16
AshIt names the Wednesday after Fat Tuesday, when many Christians receive a mark of it on the forehead.
CarnivalThe whole season of parades and balls. In New Orleans it begins on January 6 and ends at midnight before Ash Wednesday.
EasterThe spring holiday that sets the date. Count back 47 days from it to find Fat Tuesday.
EpiphanyThe Christian feast on January 6 that opens the Carnival season in New Orleans.
FastingGoing without certain foods for a time. It is the Lent custom that Fat Tuesday comes just before.
FebruaryThe earliest month in which Fat Tuesday can fall. The third is the earliest possible date.
FrenchThe language the holiday's name comes from, brought to the Gulf Coast by settlers in the late 1600s.
GrasThe French word for fat, and the second half of the holiday's name.
JanuaryThe first month. New Orleans opens its Carnival season on the sixth, so parades can run for weeks before Fat Tuesday.
LentThe forty-day season of fasting before Easter. Fat Tuesday is the last day before it starts.
MardiThe French word for Tuesday, and the first half of the holiday's name.
MoonEaster is the Sunday after the first full one of spring, which is why the date of Fat Tuesday moves every year.
ShroveThe English name for this Tuesday. It comes from shrive, an old word for confessing sins and being forgiven.
TuesdayThe day of the week the holiday always falls on. It can land anywhere from February 3 to March 9.
TwelfthThe number of the Night, counted from Christmas, that starts the Carnival season.
WednesdayThe day after Fat Tuesday. The one named for ashes always falls 46 days ahead of Easter.
New Orleans and Beyond 18
AlabamaThe state that is home to Mobile, where French settlers first kept the holiday in 1703.
BayouA slow, marshy stream. French explorers named one after the holiday in 1699.
BelgiumThe country where the town of Binche holds a three-day Carnival recognized by UNESCO in 2003.
BrazilThe country whose Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is considered the biggest in the world.
CajunDescribes the French-speaking people of rural south Louisiana, who mark the day with a costumed run through the countryside.
CreoleDescribes the New Orleans cooking that mixes French, Spanish, West African and Native American influences.
ExplorersPeople who travel to map unknown lands. French ones camped beside the Mississippi on Fat Tuesday in 1699 and named the spot for the day.
FranceThe country whose settlers carried the holiday to the Gulf Coast in the late 1600s.
LafayetteThe south Louisiana city that crowned its first Carnival monarch in 1897 and has the state's oldest children's krewe still parading.
LouisianaThe state where Fat Tuesday has been a legal holiday since 1875.
MedievalBelonging to the Middle Ages. The costumed country run of the Cajuns goes back to celebrations of that time in France.
MobileThe Alabama city where French soldiers and settlers first kept Mardi Gras in 1703, fifteen years before New Orleans was founded.
OrleansWith New in front, the Louisiana city, founded in 1718, that is best known for this holiday.
QuarterThe French one is the oldest part of New Orleans. Walking clubs end their Fat Tuesday marches there.
RiverThe Mississippi is the one French explorers were sailing up when they made camp on Fat Tuesday in 1699.
SambaThe Brazilian dance and music of the Rio parades, performed by more than 200 neighborhood schools.
SettlersPeople who make a home in a new land. French ones in Mobile began the first organized celebration in 1703.
VeniceThe Italian city whose Carnival is famous for masks. It was abolished in 1797 and revived in 1979.
How this list was compiled: 99 Mardi Gras words chosen and defined for this site, in five themed lists (parades and music, kings, masks and colors, Fat Tuesday food, the Carnival calendar, New Orleans and beyond) plus three cross-cutting lists: 24 favorites that open the page, the 37 short words of 3 to 5 letters and the 24 long words of 8 to 12 letters. Every entry is a single word of 3 to 12 letters with no spaces, hyphens or apostrophes, so King and Cake, Mardi and Gras, and Orleans stand in for the two-word names. No clue contains its own word, because the clue replaces the word in clue mode. The page is for children: nothing about drinking or the adult side of the French Quarter is in any clue. No person is named. No brand is named (a well-known snack cake thrown in Mobile is left out for that reason). Pancake is not a grid word because Cake can be read inside it, and Rio is left out because it can be read inside Brioche. Midnight and Mississippi are left out because each contains a string on the puzzle maker's blocked list. The date moves every year, so the clues give the rule (the eve of Ash Wednesday, 47 days ahead of Easter, between February 3 and March 9) and no year's date. Definitions are our own wording for readers of about 8 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/Mardi_Gras (French for Fat Tuesday; day before Ash Wednesday; eggs, milk and butter used up before Lent; shrive; French explorers who made camp on the Mississippi on Mardi Gras 1699 and named the spot and Bayou Mardi Gras, where two articles differ on the calendar day so no day is given; Mobile 1703; New Orleans founded 1718; 1833 parade, tableau and ball; masks and costumes of fairies, animals, myths and clowns; Binche, its Gilles, oranges and UNESCO 2003; Cajun Courir de Mardi Gras), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras_in_New_Orleans (Carnival from January 6 to midnight before Ash Wednesday; early processions and masks in the streets, sometimes prohibited by law; krewes keep the same route each year; throws of beads, doubloons, cups and toys; glass beads from Czechoslovakia until the 1960s; legal state holiday in 1875; colors called for by Rex in 1872 for balconies and given meanings in 1892; Tuesday between February 3 and March 9; mask law suspended for the day; doubloon design; flambeau carriers and the coins tossed to them; coconuts handed over since 1988; walking clubs with at least one jazz band ending in the French Quarter; balls by invitation; membership open to anyone who pays dues; masquerade balls in the final week; hand-decorated shoes), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_parade (founded 1872; Rex is Latin for king; King and Queen of Carnival; purple for justice, green for faith, gold for power), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras_throws (throws to spectators lining the streets; necklaces of beads; glitter shoes and painted coconuts; the same three color meanings), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cake (served from Epiphany until Carnival; brioche dough; ring of twisted cinnamon dough; icing in purple, green and gold; sprinkles standard since 1872; bean, then porcelain, then figurine as the hidden charm; plastic baby for luck and the duty to buy the next cake or host the next party; praline filling; bought at a shop; sugar industry and bakeries of New Orleans; paper crown in France), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krewe (definition; archaic spelling coined by a New Orleans krewe; members buy their own throws; Lafayette's first Carnival monarch in 1897 and children's krewe of 1928), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras_in_Mobile,_Alabama (the oldest official Carnival held in the United States, 1703; mystic societies; oldest continuously parading society founded 1867), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_Tuesday (pancake breakfasts and the using up of eggs, milk and butter; the church bell that called people to confession and to fry pancakes; last round of merrymaking), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courir_de_Mardi_Gras (the capitaine on horseback with cape and small flag; costumed run through the countryside; origins in rural medieval France), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival (from Late Latin carne levare, to remove meat), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday (ashes on the forehead; always 46 days before Easter; Easter as the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox; Lent of forty days), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Creole_cuisine (blend of French, Spanish, West African and Native American influences; gumbo named from a West African word for okra; jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, pralines and beignets as Creole dishes), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beignet (square, leavened dough, powdered sugar, breakfast, brought by the French in the 1700s), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_line_(parades) (brass band, people who follow the band, parasols and handkerchiefs), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Float_(parade) (the earliest floats were decorated barges on the Thames), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jester (cap and bells; licence to mock), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_of_Venice (masks; abolished 1797, revived 1979) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Carnival (considered the biggest in the world; more than 200 samba schools). Rechecked 2026-09-20 after the truth review: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras_in_New_Orleans (for that day the laws against hiding one's identity behind a mask do not apply; the article does not say whose laws), so the Mask clue says the law does not apply and not that the city sets it aside; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krewe (the state's oldest extant children's krewe, founded in 1928, is based in Lafayette), so the Lafayette clue says oldest still parading. Review fix 2026-09-20 (round 4): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras_in_Mobile,_Alabama read again that day (soldiers and settlers kept Mardi Gras from 1703 on; parades "only occasionally canceled because of war"; the article lists a magazine piece that doubts the "oldest" claim). The Mobile clue no longer says "has celebrated since 1703, the oldest official Carnival in the United States": it gives the first year and the founding of New Orleans in 1718 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras), two dates that cannot go out of date. Three more clues lost a standing claim the same day. Mystic said "the oldest still parading since 1867": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Myths (read 2026-09-20) says founded in 1867 and the second oldest society in Mobile, so the clue keeps the founding year only. Coconut said that since 1988 they are handed over, not thrown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_Social_Aid_%26_Pleasure_Club (read 2026-09-20) does not say so (it says painted ones became popular with the club in the late 1940s and that a 1988 state law let the custom resume), so the clue gives the late 1940s. Sprinkles said the three colors have topped king cakes since 1872: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cake (read 2026-09-20) has that year in a sentence with no citation, beside one that says the cake custom was not settled in the United States until the 1900s, so the year is out and the clue says only that sugar in the Carnival colors tops the cake. Licence: own work
How it works
This Mardi Gras word search free printable opens on 16 of its 24 favorites, Krewe, Doubloon and Jester among them. New puzzle draws another 16, and seven more lists under Start from a list reach the rest of the 99.
Read the full guide
Parades, royalty, food and the calendar
Kings, Masks and Colors has 22 words. Parades and Music has 23 and Fat Tuesday Food 20. Carnival Calendar has 16, and one puzzle hides all of them. For kindergarten, Easy Mardi Gras has the 37 words of 3 to 5 letters, Rex, Jazz and Gumbo included. Hard Mardi Gras has 24 of 8 to 12, up to Handkerchief.
Why Fat Tuesday moves
Carnival Calendar teaches the rule: Fat Tuesday is the eve of Ash Wednesday, 47 days ahead of Easter, so it lands between February 3 and March 9. For a math warm-up, have students find Easter on a calendar and count back. In New Orleans the Carnival season opens on January 6.
Why the odd spelling? The Krewe clue says New Orleans coined it as a mock old-fashioned form of crew.
Kings, Masks and Colors pairs Purple, Green and Gold with Justice, Faith and Power: ring each pair in one crayon.
Questions and answers
What do the Mardi Gras colors mean?
Purple stands for justice, gold for power and green for faith. The Rex krewe, founded in 1872, picked the three colors and gave them those meanings in 1892. All six words are in Kings, Masks and Colors.
When is Mardi Gras, and why does the date change?
It is always the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which falls 46 days before Easter. Easter is the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox, so Fat Tuesday slides with it.
Is the word list right for an elementary classroom?
Yes. The words stay with parades, music, costumes, food and the calendar. No clue mentions drinking, and no person or brand is named. Easy Mardi Gras with Large print, under More options, suits kindergarten to grade 2.