May Word Search Printable

Maypole to Memorial Day in 74 words. New puzzle deals 16; Print or save as PDF makes the sheet.

Name Date

May Word Search

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 16 words found

NCHSRCARNATIONT

LMAZTJSTSHEHPWU

EVERESTBASKETPL

EAOFDERBYENAANI

LELILYAANDCLTSP

RGXJSZWEFFHRDHX

OTUUHSBMETTROOE

TAMTOCEEATIMUWK

KUEGRTRMAYPOLES

DOIASTRONAUTARI

TELNEPYREUNHOSH

SWFUROBINEAESAA

DGFIESTARUFRDHY

OOBICYCLEULLNOR

NDMEGESEFOYHHEV

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.

MotherMOTHER
CarnationCARNATION
MemorialMEMORIAL
FiestaFIESTA
MaypoleMAYPOLE
BasketBASKET
DerbyDERBY
HorseHORSE
BicycleBICYCLE
LilyLILY
ShowersSHOWERS
TulipTULIP
RobinROBIN
StrawberrySTRAWBERRY
EverestEVEREST
AstronautASTRONAUT

16 of 24 words from the May Favorites list.

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Easy: words go across and down.

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Word list

Large print Lower-case letters Name and date line on paper

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Answer key: May Word Search

NCHSRCARNATIONT

LMAZTJSTSHEHPWU

EVERESTBASKETPL

EAOFDERBYENAANI

LELILYAANDCLTSP

RGXJSZWEFFHRDHX

OTUUHSBMETTROOE

TAMTOCEEATIMUWK

KUEGRTRMAYPOLES

DOIASTRONAUTARI

TELNEPYREUNHOSH

SWFUROBINEAESAA

DGFIESTARUFRDHY

OOBICYCLEULLNOR

NDMEGESEFOYHHEV

MOTHER, CARNATION, MEMORIAL, FIESTA, MAYPOLE, BASKET, DERBY, HORSE, BICYCLE, LILY, SHOWERS, TULIP, ROBIN, STRAWBERRY, EVEREST, ASTRONAUT

Next step Read these May words aloud as a spelling test Build a puzzle from your own May list

All 74 words

May Holidays 24

Appreciation Thanks that you show. Schools set aside the first full week of the month to give it to their staff.
Basket An old May Day custom: leave one full of flowers on a doorstep, ring the bell and run.
Bicycle Two wheels, two pedals and a chain. May is its national month in the United States.
Carnation A frilly flower handed out at church on Mother's Day. In 1913 officials were asked to wear a white one.
Cinco Spanish for five. It begins the name of the holiday on the 5th.
Derby The Kentucky race held on the first Saturday of the month. It was first run in 1875.
Fiesta Spanish for a party or festival, like the ones held on the 5th.
Heritage What a people hands down. May honors that of Asian American, Pacific Islander and Jewish American families.
Honeybee A striped insect that fills combs with a sweet food. The United Nations keeps a world day for it on May 20.
Horse The animal that races in Louisville, Kentucky, on the first Saturday of the month.
Kentucky The state whose famous race in Louisville fills the first Saturday of the month.

Show all 74 words (63 more)

May Holidays, continued

Lei A garland of flowers from Hawaii. May 1 has been an official Day for it in the islands since 1929.
Maypole A tall wooden post, often hung with ribbons. People dance around it on the 1st.
Memorial The Day kept on the last Monday of the month. It was first observed on May 30, 1868, as Decoration Day.
Military The armed forces. May is their national month of thanks, and Armed Forces Day is the third Saturday.
Mother She has a Sunday of her own, the second of the month, in the United States and Canada.
Nightingale Florence, the famous nurse born on May 12. The day for her whole profession is kept on her birthday.
Nurses Their international day is May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale.
Poppy A red flower worn to remember soldiers, after a 1915 poem about the blooms on graves in Flanders.
Puebla The city where Mexico's army beat the French on May 5, 1862.
Roses The winner of the big Kentucky race is draped in a blanket of these, which gave the race its nickname.
Teacher The first full week of the month is an Appreciation Week for this person in your classroom.
Victoria A queen born on May 24. Canada keeps her Day on the last Monday ahead of May 25.
Workers In many countries May 1 is a holiday for these people, everyone who has a job.

May Calendar 17

Bell The shape of each small white bloom on the month's birth flower. A real one rings.
Beryl A mineral. Its green variety is the birthstone of the month.
Bull The animal that stands for the zodiac sign of the first 20 days.
Comet Halley's is the most famous. Dust it left behind makes the shooting stars of early May.
Elders The poet Ovid had a second idea: the month is named for the maiores, Latin for these older people.
Emerald The green birthstone of the month, a variety of the mineral beryl.
Flowers What April showers bring in May, in a rhyme that was already in print in the 1570s.
Gemini The twins, the zodiac sign that begins on May 21.
Hawthorn A thorny tree with white blossom, one of the two birth flowers. Its other names include may and maythorn.
Lily One birth flower of the month is this 'of the valley', a plant with small white blooms.
Maia The Greek goddess the month is named for. In myth she is the mother of Hermes.
Mayflower A low woodland plant with fragrant pale pink blooms, the floral emblem of Massachusetts and Nova Scotia.
Meteor A streak of light made by space dust. A shower of them, the Eta Aquariids, peaks early in the month.
November South of the equator, May feels the way this month does in the north.
Showers Light falls of rain. In the old saying, April has them and May gets the blooms.
Taurus The zodiac sign that runs until May 20.
Valley Low land between hills. It ends the name of a birth flower that is pretty but highly poisonous.

Outdoors in May 19

Allergy Sneezing and itchy eyes set off by the tree and grass pollen that fills the air in spring.
Asparagus Green spears cut in spring as they push up through the soil.
Blossom The bloom of a fruit tree, such as an apple or a cherry.
Fledgling A young bird that has grown its flight feathers and is learning to fly.
Hive The home of a colony of bees.
Iris A tall garden bloom with sword-shaped leaves. Its name is the Greek word for rainbow.
Ladybug A small round beetle, red with black spots, that eats the aphids on garden plants.
Lawn The grass around a house. By May it needs cutting again.
Lilac A shrub with sweet-smelling clusters of pale purple blooms. A shade of purple shares its name.
Mower The machine that cuts the grass, heard again on spring weekends.
Peony A garden plant with big, ruffled blooms in pink, white or red.
Picnic A meal eaten outdoors, often on a blanket.
Radish A small, crisp red root with a peppery bite, quick to grow in a school garden.
Rhubarb Sour pink stalks cooked with sugar in pies. Its big leaves are not safe to eat.
Robin A songbird with an orange-red breast that tugs worms out of wet lawns.
Strawberry A red fruit that wears its seeds on the outside.
Swarm A cloud of bees leaving to start a new home. It is mainly seen in spring.
Tornado A spinning funnel of wind. On average the United States has more of them in May than in any other month.
Tulip A cup-shaped bloom that grows from a bulb planted in the fall.

May in History 14

Astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American one in space on May 5, 1961.
Atlantic The ocean Charles Lindbergh crossed alone and without a stop on May 20 and 21, 1927.
Bridge The Golden Gate one in San Francisco opened on May 27, 1937.
Everest The highest mountain on Earth. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached its top on May 29, 1953.
Expedition A long journey to explore. William Clark's party set out up the Missouri from Camp Dubois on May 14, 1804.
Jamestown The English settlement in Virginia founded in May 1607.
Paris The French capital, where the first solo nonstop flight from New York landed on May 21, 1927.
Pilot The person who flies a plane. One flew alone from New York to Paris on May 20 and 21, 1927.
Railroad Tracks for trains. The first one across the United States was joined up on May 10, 1869.
Spike A big nail that holds a rail. A golden one was tapped in at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.
Summit The very top of a mountain. Two climbers first stood on the highest one on May 29, 1953.
Telegraph Samuel Morse opened his line on May 24, 1844, with a message sent from Washington to Baltimore.
Utah The place where the tracks from east and west met on May 10, 1869. It is a state now.
Volcano Mount St. Helens in Washington State is one. It erupted on May 18, 1980.

How it works

May opens with a maypole and closes with Memorial Day, and this May word search printable follows it: Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, a horse race. The opening grid hides 16 of 74 words, Carnation, Derby and Everest among them.

Read the full guide

A May word search for kids, list by list

Pick any of the 7 lists under Start from a list and the sheet takes its name: May in History prints as May in History Word Search. Easy May gathers the 25 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Lei, Bull and Hive. For a May word search for kids in kindergarten or first grade, open More options and tick Large print.

Hard May, and a PDF

Appreciation and Nightingale are two of the 21 Hard May words. Press Hard: either may then run backwards or diagonally. Any sheet saves as a May word search PDF from the print window.

History quiz: pick May in History, tick Show clues, not words in More options. All 14 clues carry a date.
Two clues double as garden safety: rhubarb leaves are not safe to eat, and lily of the valley is poisonous.

Questions and answers

Which May holidays are in the word search?

The May Holidays list has 24 words. Maypole and Lei belong to May 1, Cinco and Fiesta to May 5, Nurses and Nightingale to May 12. Mother and Carnation mark the second Sunday, Derby and Roses the first Saturday, Memorial and Poppy the last Monday.

Why is the month called May?

For Maia, the Greek goddess who in myth is the mother of Hermes. The Roman poet Ovid offered a second idea: the maiores, Latin for elders. Maia and Elders are both in the May Calendar list, beside Emerald, the birthstone.

Which month has the most tornadoes?

May. On average the United States has more tornadoes in May than in any other month, so Tornado is in Outdoors in May. The same list has Allergy, Swarm and Fledgling. South of the equator none of it fits: May there feels like November.

All 74 words

May Holidays 24

May Holidays, continued

May Calendar 17

Outdoors in May 19

May in History 14

How it works

A May word search for kids, list by list

Hard May, and a PDF

Questions and answers

More tools