Moon Crossword Puzzle Printable

Print a Moon vocabulary crossword on phases, craters, tides, eclipses and the Apollo landings, with its answer key.

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Moon 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: Moon Crossword

1L2FA3GUVLL4APOLLOWM5ROCKET6G7EO8CRESCENT9MALAV10MISSION11RIMPTSY12EAGLE

Across 4 APOLLO · 5 ROCKET · 8 CRESCENT · 10 MISSION · 11 RIM · 12 EAGLE

Down 1 LAVA · 2 FULLMOON · 3 GLOW · 6 GRAVITY · 7 ECLIPSE · 9 MAN

Next step Find Moon phase words in a word searchColor the Moon by number

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Phases and Moonlight 25

  • Blue moon Nickname for a second fully lit Moon between the 1st and the 31st of, say, August
  • Calendar Chart of the days of a year; some kinds follow the Moon instead of the Sun
  • Crescent Thin, curved sliver of light, the shape of the Moon a few days before or after it goes unlit
  • Cycle A set of changes that repeats in the same order, as the Moon's shapes do every 29.5 days
  • Earthshine Faint light on the unlit part of a thin Moon, sunlight bounced to it from our own planet
  • Full moon The Moon when its whole near side is lit, with Earth between it and the Sun
  • Gibbous More than a semicircle of light but not yet the whole disk
  • Half How much of the Moon the Sun lights at any moment, whatever shape we see
  • Harvest "___ Moon": name for the fully lit Moon that comes closest to the September equinox
  • Lunation One complete run of the Moon's shapes, about 29.5 days long
  • Month Stretch of about 30 days; the word shares its root with the word moon
  • Moonlight Sunlight bounced off the Moon that lets you see outdoors after dark
  • Moonrise The moment the Moon comes up in the east
  • Moonset The moment the Moon goes down in the west
  • New moon The Moon when it passes between Earth and the Sun and the side facing us is unlit
  • Night The hours of darkness, when the Moon is easiest to see
  • Phase One of the shapes the bright part of the Moon seems to take, from thin sliver to whole disk
  • Quarter "First ___" and "last ___": names for the Moon when we see a lit semicircle
  • Reflect To send light back the way a mirror does; the Moon shines only this way
  • Sidereal Describes the 27.3 days the Moon takes to circle Earth once, measured against the stars
  • Supermoon Nickname for a fully lit Moon at its closest to Earth, when it looks a little bigger and brighter
  • Synodic Describes the 29.5 days the Moon takes to come back to the same shape in our view
  • Terminator Line that divides the lit part of the Moon from the unlit part
  • Waning Shrinking: said of the Moon while its lit part gets smaller from one evening to the next
  • Waxing Growing: said of the Moon while its lit part gets bigger from one evening to the next

Craters, Seas and Rocks 33

  • Albedo Measure of how much light a surface bounces back; the Moon's is low, a little above worn asphalt
  • Anorthosite Pale stone that makes up much of the Moon's bright uplands
  • Basalt Hard volcanic stone, almost black, that fills the Moon's low plains
  • Basin A very large impact site, hundreds of kilometers across
  • Breccia Stone made of broken pieces stuck back together, common where impacts have smashed the ground
  • Copernicus Large, terraced impact site named for the Polish astronomer who put the Sun at the center
  • Core The small, iron-rich center of the Moon
  • Crater Bowl-shaped hole left where a chunk of stone or metal from space hit the ground
  • Crust The outermost solid layer of the Moon
  • Dust Fine powder; the Moon's is sharp and sticks to whatever touches it
  • Ejecta Material blasted out of the ground when an impact digs a hole
  • Exosphere The Moon's layer of gas, so thin that it is very nearly a vacuum
  • Far side "The ___ ___ of the Moon": the hemisphere that points away from Earth all the time
  • Footprint Mark that a boot leaves in the Moon's powder
  • Gravity The pull that holds you on the ground; the Moon's is much weaker than Earth's
  • Highlands The brighter, older, higher parts of the Moon, pitted all over by impacts
  • Ice Frozen water, found in permanently shadowed hollows near the Moon's poles
  • Lava Melted stone that once flooded the low parts of the Moon and hardened there
  • Limb Astronomers' word for the edge of the Moon's disk
  • Mantle The thick layer of the Moon that lies between its center and its outermost layer
  • Mare One of the wide, flat, darker plains of the Moon; the name is Latin for sea
  • Maria Plural name for the Moon's darker plains, found mostly on the side that faces Earth
  • Meteoroid Small chunk of stone or metal that travels through space
  • Moonquake A shaking of the Moon's ground, recorded by instruments that astronauts left behind
  • Peak Mountain that stands in the middle of a large impact site
  • Ray Bright streak of thrown-out material that stretches away from a young impact site
  • Regolith Blanket of loose, broken stone and powder that covers the Moon's solid ground
  • Rille Long, narrow trench that winds across parts of the Moon's plains
  • Rim The raised edge around an impact site
  • Rock Hard, solid stuff; astronauts brought home 382 kilograms of it and of soil from the Moon
  • Sixth "One ___": how strong the Moon's pull at the ground is next to Earth's
  • Tranquility "Sea of ___": the plain where the first people to reach the Moon touched down
  • Tycho Young, bright impact site in the Moon's south with streaks that reach far across the near side

Orbit, Tides and Eclipses 30

  • Annular Describes the kind of Sun-hiding event in which a bright ring is left showing around the Moon
  • Apogee Where the Moon is on its path when it is as far from Earth as it gets
  • Axis The imaginary line through a body about which it spins
  • Barycenter The shared center of mass about which Earth and the Moon both circle
  • Bulge Hump of sea water raised by the Moon's pull; Earth has two, on opposite sides
  • Corona The Sun's glowing outer atmosphere, seen when the Moon covers the bright disk
  • Eclipse Darkening of the Sun or the Moon when Earth, Moon and Sun fall into line
  • Ellipse Oval curve; the Moon's path around Earth is one, nearly a circle
  • Libration Slow rocking of the Moon that lets us see about 59 percent of it over time
  • Locked "Tidally ___": describes a moon that always keeps the same face toward its planet
  • Lunar Adjective that means of the Moon
  • Neap Name of the weak rise and fall of the sea when the Sun and Moon pull at right angles
  • Node Either of two points where the Moon's path cuts through the plane in which Earth circles the Sun
  • Occultation The hiding of a star or planet when the Moon passes in front of it
  • Orbit The curved path the Moon follows as it circles Earth
  • Partial Describes an event in which only a piece of the Sun or Moon is covered
  • Penumbra Pale outer fringe of a shadow, where part of the Sun still shines
  • Perigee Where the Moon is on its path when it comes closest to Earth
  • Recede To move away; the Moon does so from Earth by about 3.8 centimeters a year
  • Red Color the Moon turns while it is completely inside Earth's shadow
  • Revolve To go around another body; the Moon does it about every 27 days
  • Rotation One turn of a body about its own center line; the Moon makes one for each trip around Earth
  • Saros Period of about 18 years after which the Sun, Earth and Moon line up in nearly the same way again
  • Satellite Anything that circles a planet; Earth has only one natural one
  • Solar Adjective that means of the Sun
  • Spring Name of the extra-strong rise and fall of the sea when the Sun, Earth and Moon are in line
  • Syzygy The lining up of three bodies in space, such as the Sun, Earth and Moon
  • Tide The sea creeping up the beach and back down again, mostly the Moon's doing
  • Totality The stretch of time when the Sun or Moon is entirely covered
  • Umbra Inner, darkest part of a shadow; the Moon turns reddish deep inside Earth's

Exploring the Moon 38

  • Apollo NASA program whose astronauts were the first people to stand on the Moon
  • Armstrong Surname of the first person to step onto the Moon
  • Artemis NASA program to send people to the Moon again, named for a Greek goddess
  • Astronaut Trained space traveler, such as each person who has stood on the Moon
  • Buggy "Moon ___": nickname of the open electric car driven on the last three landings
  • Canaveral Florida cape beside the space center where the Moon flights lifted off
  • Capsule Small sealed cabin in which astronauts ride back to Earth
  • Chandrayaan Name of India's series of Moon spacecraft
  • Columbia Name of the command craft that kept circling the Moon during the first landing
  • Countdown The backward count to zero before liftoff
  • Crew All the people who fly together on one spacecraft
  • Docking The linking of two spacecraft while both are in space
  • Eagle Name of the craft in which the first two moonwalkers touched down in 1969
  • Earthrise Famous 1968 photograph of our planet coming up over the Moon's edge
  • Flag Cloth banner on a pole; six were planted on the Moon by American astronauts
  • Galileo Italian scientist who studied the Moon through a spyglass in 1609 and drew its mountains
  • Helmet Hard covering for the head, with a clear visor to see through
  • Houston Texas city with the control center that talks to NASA astronauts in flight
  • July The first people reached the Moon on the 20th of this, in 1969
  • Ladder Rungs the first moonwalker climbed down to reach the ground
  • Lander Craft made to set down gently on the Moon or another world
  • Laser Narrow beam of light that scientists bounce off reflectors left on the Moon to measure its distance
  • Launch The moment a spacecraft lifts off
  • Luna Latin name of the Moon, and the name of the Soviet spacecraft that reached it first
  • Mission A spaceflight with a job to do
  • Module A self-contained section of a spacecraft, such as the one that carried two people down to the Moon
  • Moonwalk Time spent on foot outside the craft on the Moon
  • Orbiter Spacecraft that circles a world without touching down
  • Probe Spacecraft with nobody aboard, sent out to explore
  • Rocket Tall vehicle whose engines push a spacecraft up off the ground
  • Rover Wheeled vehicle built to drive across the ground of another world
  • Sample A small amount of soil or stone collected for study
  • Saturn "___ V": the three-stage giant that lifted people toward the Moon
  • Spacesuit Sealed outfit that gives its wearer air to breathe outside the craft
  • Splashdown The landing of a returning spacecraft in the sea
  • Telescope Instrument that makes faraway things such as the Moon's mountains look near
  • Thrust What an engine makes to shove a spacecraft upward
  • Twelve How many people have walked on the Moon

Moon Lore and Other Moons 29

  • Almanac Yearly book that lists the times the Moon comes up and its shape on each date
  • Billion The Moon is about 4.5 ___ years old
  • Binoculars Two small spyglasses joined side by side, enough to show the Moon's larger pits
  • Charon Largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto
  • Cheese Food that an old joke says the Moon is made of
  • Collision A crash; the leading idea is that the Moon formed after a giant one
  • Deimos The smaller and farther of the two small moons of Mars
  • Diameter The distance straight through a ball; the Moon's is about 3,475 kilometers
  • Europa Moon of Jupiter with a shell of frozen water and, beneath it, a sea
  • Fifth Our Moon ranks ___ in size among all the moons of the planets
  • Ganymede Jupiter's biggest moon, larger than any other moon and than the planet Mercury
  • Glow To shine softly, or the soft light itself
  • Halo Ring of light seen around the Moon when thin, icy clouds are in the way
  • Man "The ___ in the Moon": face that people imagine in its lighter and darker patches
  • Monday Day of the week named for the Moon
  • Moonbeam A shaft of light from the Moon
  • Mooncake Filled pastry eaten at the Mid-Autumn Festival in China
  • Moonlit Brightened by the Moon
  • Moonstone Gem named for the milky, bluish light that seems to float inside it
  • Phobos The larger and closer of the two small moons of Mars
  • Rabbit Animal that stories of East Asia see in the Moon's darker patches
  • Round Having the shape of a ball, as the Moon does
  • Selene Greek goddess of the Moon
  • Sky The space above us where the Moon appears
  • Sphere A ball; the solid shape of the Moon
  • Theia Name scientists use for the Mars-sized world they think hit Earth long ago
  • Titan Largest moon of the ringed planet, wrapped in a thick, hazy atmosphere
  • Triton Largest moon of Neptune
  • Venus Planet next to ours that has no moon at all

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for grade 2 to 8 science classes, in five sets: phases, the surface, orbit with tides and eclipses, exploration, and lore and other moons. Figures and facts were checked against NASA's Moon pages (science.nasa.gov/moon) and English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA 4.0) in October 2026. Armstrong and Galileo are the only people among the answers, and no clue was copied from a published puzzle. Licence: own work

How it works

This moon crossword puzzle, printable on Letter or A4, is a criss-cross grid for a unit on the Moon. It opens on 12 easy words such as Crescent, Eclipse and Apollo.

Read the full guide

Five sets, from Albedo to Waxing

Phases and Moonlight has Crescent, Gibbous, Waning and Earthshine. Craters, Seas and Rocks has Mare, Regolith, Tycho and Basalt. Orbit, Tides and Eclipses has Perigee, Neap, Umbra and Syzygy. Exploring the Moon runs from Galileo to Apollo and Artemis. Moon Lore and Other Moons has Selene, Mooncake, Titan and Europa.

A moon phases crossword in one set

Choose Phases and Moonlight under Clue set and each new puzzle is drawn from that set alone. New moon, Crescent, Quarter, Gibbous, Full moon, Waxing and Waning, the key words in the names of the eight phases, are all answers.

  • Two-word answers such as New moon and Far side go into the squares without the space.

Questions and answers

Is the moon crossword printable with an answer key?

Yes. The key prints last, on a sheet of its own, and the page is free with no sign-up.

What grade is the Moon crossword for?

Easy Moon Words suits grades 2 to 4, with answers such as Crater, Orbit, Tide and Rocket. The five themed sets suit grades 5 to 8. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

Are the Moon landings in the crossword?

Yes. Exploring the Moon has Apollo, Eagle, Columbia, Armstrong and Moonwalk, and it comes up to date with Artemis and Chandrayaan.

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