Mother's Day Word Search Free Printable for Moms, Grandmas and Aunts
Press Print or save as PDF, or first type a student's own word for mom at the end of the word list.
Name Date
Mother's Day Word Search
Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.
0 of 16 words found
LOVEDUTFIZMSMOM
TOIFCPBOUQUETYA
HGTFOARCAPLKJIS
COUPONEAPRUAIZR
BYLUACARNATIONN
RNIOUAKDEILZUPR
ORPPNKFLOWERSPN
WDSTTEAEDLHIUNI
THANKSSSIMQDERH
JNOCMOTHEROSESW
LXSSRRNSWRGUOTS
ASTHFNNCKTRTMXB
JIQUFCIRHNAHKGK
BOWGJLDIUQHBNJF
EIESLMFAMILYYWP
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.
MOTHER
MOM
AUNT
FAMILY
LOVE
HUGS
THANKS
FLOWERS
BOUQUET
TULIPS
ROSES
CARD
COUPON
BREAKFAST
PANCAKES
CARNATION
16 of 24 words from the Mother's 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.
AuntYour parent's sister. For some children she is the one who gets the card in May.
CaregiverAnyone who looks after a child day to day. A stepmom, a foster mom or a grandparent counts, and the day is for them too.
CaringLooking after others and noticing what they need.
FamilyThe people who raise you and share your home. The holiday honors a mom's place in it.
FosterThis kind of parent gives a child a safe home for a while, sometimes for good.
GentleSoft and careful, never rough. It describes the way a parent holds a newborn.
GrandmaYour parent's mom. Many families honor her on May's second Sunday too.
GuardianAn adult the law trusts to raise a child who is not their own by birth.
HugsArms wrapped around someone you care about. They cost nothing and fit every mom.
LoveThe deep caring between a parent and a child. The white carnation was chosen to stand for a mom's.
MamaOne of the first sounds a baby can make, which is why words like it mean a female parent in Swahili, Quechua and Polish.
Show all 99 words (87 more)
Moms and Grandmas, continued
MomThe short name most American children use for a female parent. It reads the same forwards and backwards.
MotherA female parent. The holiday spells this word with an apostrophe before the s, so that each family honors its own.
NonnaThe Italian word for a grandmother.
SisterA girl or woman with the same parents as you. A big one sometimes helps raise the little ones.
ThanksWhat the whole day is for saying. Try to name one exact thing she did for you this week.
WiseKnowing what is right from years of experience. People often say it of grandmothers.
Flowers, Cards and Breakfast 22
BouquetA bunch of cut blooms tied together to give as a gift.
BreakfastThe first meal of the day. Serving it to her in bed is a classic surprise.
BrunchA late-morning meal that blends two meals and two words into one.
CardFolded paper with a message inside. One you make yourself says more than one from a store.
ChoresHousehold jobs such as sweeping and taking out the trash. In Indonesia moms get a day off from them on December 22.
CorsageA small bunch of blooms pinned to clothing. In Korea parents may wear one of carnations on Parents' Day, May 8.
CouponA homemade ticket she can trade for a favor, such as one free car wash or an evening of no arguing.
DaisyA small bloom with white petals around a yellow center. Children pick them from lawns to make chains.
DishesPlates, bowls and cups. Washing them without being asked is a gift that needs no wrapping.
FlowersThe best-known gift of the day. In Sweden the holiday was set late in May so that children could go outside and pick some.
JuiceA drink squeezed from fruit. Orange is the usual one on a morning tray.
PancakesFlat round cakes cooked on a griddle and served in a stack with syrup.
PicnicA meal packed in a basket and eaten outdoors on a blanket, an easy way to spend a warm Sunday in May.
PoemLines of verse, often rhyming. Writing one for her costs nothing, and she will keep it for years.
RestaurantA place where meals are cooked and served to you. This holiday is known as the busiest day of the year for them in the United States.
RosesBlooms with thorny stems. In Japan they are given on this day along with red carnations.
SurpriseSomething she does not expect. The planning has to stay secret until the morning.
ToastSliced bread browned by heat. It is the easiest thing for a young cook to make without help.
TrayA flat board with raised edges for carrying a meal to someone who is still in bed.
TulipsCup-shaped blooms that grow from bulbs and open in spring.
VaseA tall container that holds water and cut blooms.
WafflesBatter cooked between two hot patterned plates, which leaves a grid of squares to hold the syrup.
Mother's Day History 17
CarnationThe bloom chosen as the emblem of the day, because it was the favorite of the founder's own mom.
ChurchThe first service was held in a Methodist one, where the founder's own mom had taught Sunday school.
FlagIn 1914 Americans were asked to fly it on the holiday, in honor of moms whose sons had died in war.
FounderThe person who starts something. This holiday's one later fought against the selling done in its name.
GraftonThe West Virginia town where the first official service for the holiday was held in 1908.
HolidayA special day marked every year. West Virginia was the first state to make this one official, in 1910.
LetterA message written by hand and mailed. The founder said people who bought a card were too lazy to write one of these.
MayThe month of the holiday in the United States and Canada. The first official service was held on its tenth day in 1908.
PhiladelphiaThe Pennsylvania city where the founder lived. A large ceremony was held there on the same day as the first service in 1908.
PresidentThe leader of the United States. In 1914 he declared the first official national holiday for moms.
ProclamationAn official public announcement. The one that made the holiday national came on May 9, 1914, a day after Congress passed the law.
SecondWhich Sunday of the month it is. Congress wrote that into law in 1914.
ShrineA place kept to honor someone. The church of the first service became one for all moms in 1962 and a National Historic Landmark in 1992.
SingularMeaning just one. The holiday's name is this kind of possessive, so the apostrophe comes before the s.
SundayThe day of the week the holiday always falls on in the United States.
TelegramA message sent by wire. The founder sent one to the first service to explain what the day meant.
WhiteThe color of the 500 carnations the founder sent to the first service in 1908.
Mothers Around the World 22
AmmaA word for a female parent used in India.
AnneThe Turkish word for a female parent, said in two beats.
ArgentinaThe only country that keeps the holiday on the third Sunday of October, which is springtime there.
BritainHere the day is the fourth Sunday of Lent, in March or early April, and grew from an old church custom.
EgyptThe country that first kept the holiday on March 21, 1956, the first day of spring. Most Arab countries now share the date.
HahaA Japanese word for a female parent. The holiday in Japan is called this, plus no Hi.
IbuThe Indonesian word for a female parent. The holiday there is called Hari plus this word.
IndiaA country of many languages that keeps the holiday on the second Sunday of May.
IndonesiaThe country that keeps the holiday on December 22, the date a national congress of women opened in 1928.
JapanThe country where red carnations are the most common gift of the day. It took up May's second Sunday in 1949.
LentThe weeks before Easter. In Britain and Ireland the holiday falls on the fourth Sunday of this season.
MadreThe word for a female parent in Spanish and in Italian.
MatkaThe word for a female parent in Polish and in Czech.
MexicoThe country that keeps the holiday on May 10 every year, whatever day of the week that is.
MumThe short name for a female parent in Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
MutterThe German word for a female parent.
NanayThe Tagalog word for a female parent, used in the Philippines.
NepalHere the day follows the moon and falls in April or May. Families visit ponds near Kathmandu to remember moms who have died.
PolandThe country that keeps the holiday on May 26 every year.
SimnelA light fruitcake topped with eleven balls of almond paste, baked in Britain for the fourth Sunday of Lent.
SwedenThe country that keeps the holiday on the last Sunday of May, when the weather is warm enough to pick wild blooms.
TurkeyA country that keeps the holiday on the second Sunday of May, as the United States does.
Animal Mothers and Babies 20
CalfThe baby of an elephant, a whale or a dolphin, as well as of farm cattle.
ChickA baby bird, above all the fluffy yellow kind hatched on a farm.
CowThe name for a female elephant, whale, seal or dolphin, as well as the farm animal that gives milk.
CubThe baby of a fox, a lion, a tiger or a bear.
DoeA female deer. The same name is used for a female rabbit, goat and kangaroo.
ElephantThe largest land animal. Females stay with their family group for their whole lives.
EweA female sheep. It sounds exactly like the word you.
FawnA baby deer.
FoalA baby horse. A healthy one can keep up with the herd only a few hours after it is born.
GooseThe name of the bird and also of the female. The male is a gander.
GoslingA baby of the bird whose male is called a gander.
HenA female chicken. She sits on her eggs for about 21 days and rarely leaves the nest until they hatch.
JoeyA baby kangaroo, koala or opossum.
KangarooAn Australian animal that hops. The female carries her baby in a pocket of skin on her belly.
LambA baby sheep.
MareA female horse.
MatriarchA female who leads her family. In an elephant herd she is usually the oldest cow.
PouchThe pocket of skin on a female kangaroo where her baby finishes growing.
QueenThe one bee in a hive that lays the eggs, as many as 1,500 a day in spring. Nearly every other bee there is her child.
VixenA female fox.
How this list was compiled: 99 Mother's Day words chosen and defined for this site, in five themed lists (moms and grandmas; flowers, cards and breakfast; the history of the American holiday; mothers around the world, which pairs words for mother in other languages with the countries and their dates; animal mothers and their babies) plus three cross-cutting lists: 24 favorites that open the page, the 47 short words of 3 to 5 letters and the 17 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, which is why the clue for Mother says a female parent and the clues for other words say mom. No person is named anywhere: the founder of the American holiday, her mother, the president of 1914 and the Egyptian journalist who began the March 21 date are described and not named, because the plan for this page does not call for public figures. No store or brand is named. Words left out so that no listed word can be read inside another: Grandmother, Stepmother, Godmother and Mothering (Mother), Stepmom and Mommy (Mom), Maman (Mama), Nana (Nanay), Jewelry (Ewe), Kitchen (Hen), Rest (Restaurant) and Nap (it reads backwards inside Pancakes and Japan). Virginia is left out because it contains a string on the puzzle maker's blocked list, so the clue for Grafton names the state. Stepmoms and foster moms are named in the clue for Caregiver. 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/Mother%27s_Day_(United_States) (second Sunday in May in the United States and Canada; first official service on May 10, 1908 at the Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia, where the founder's mother had taught Sunday school; larger ceremony the same day in Philadelphia; West Virginia first to make the day official in 1910; Congress passed the law on May 8, 1914 and the proclamation came the next day, asking citizens to fly the flag to honor mothers whose sons had died in war; singular possessive spelling; carnation chosen because it was her mother's favorite flower; founder's opposition to commercialization and her preference for a handwritten letter over a bought card; the year's busiest day for eating out in the United States), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Jarvis (telegram and five hundred white carnations sent to the Grafton service; lived in Philadelphia), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mother%27s_Day_Shrine (incorporated as a shrine to all mothers in 1962; National Historic Landmark in 1992), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day (dates table and country sections: Mexico May 10; Japan second Sunday of May since 1949, red carnations and roses, Haha no Hi; Indonesia December 22, Hari Ibu, the 1928 women's congress, a day off from chores; Poland May 26; Turkey and India second Sunday of May; United Kingdom and Ireland fourth Sunday in Lent; Egypt March 21, first kept in 1956 and copied by other Arab countries; Nepal's Mata Tirtha Aunsi in April or May with the pilgrimage to ponds near Kathmandu; Sweden last Sunday of May, chosen late so people could pick flowers outdoors; Argentina third Sunday of October, the only country on that date), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothering_Sunday (fourth Sunday in Lent; visiting the mother church), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simnel_cake (light fruitcake with eleven balls of almond paste, made for the fourth Sunday in Lent), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianthus_caryophyllus (carnation as the emblem; corsage of carnations worn by parents in Korea on Parents' Day, May 8), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animal_names (hen and chick, ewe and lamb, mare and foal, doe and fawn, vixen and cub, cow and calf for cattle, elephants, whales, seals and dolphins, goose, gander and gosling, joey for kangaroo, koala and opossum, doe for rabbit, goat and kangaroo), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken (eggs hatch after about 21 days and the hen rarely leaves the nest), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foal (a healthy foal keeps up with the herd a few hours after birth), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mama_and_papa (among the first word-like sounds babies make, which explains the likeness across unrelated languages), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo (pouch in which joeys complete their development), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_bee (normally one mated queen in a hive; about 1,500 eggs a day during the spring build-up) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant (females spend their whole lives in family groups led by the matriarch, usually the oldest cow). Words for mother and grandmother in other languages were checked on 2026-09-19 on Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/madre (Spanish, Italian), https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mutter (German), https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/matka (Polish, Czech), https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anne (Turkish), https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nanay (Tagalog), https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amma (India), https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ibu (Indonesian), https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mama (Swahili, Quechua, Polish), https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mum, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/abuela and https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nonna. Left out because sources disagree: the day in May 1905 on which the founder's mother died (May 8 in one article, May 9 in another) and Ethiopia's date (the dates table and the country section of the same article differ). Licence: own work
How it works
This Mother's Day word search free printable opens on 16 words such as Carnation, Tulips and Coupon. New puzzle draws another 16 of the 24 favorites, Grandma among them, and seven more lists under the puzzle reach all 99 words.
Read the full guide
From Moms and Grandmas to animal mothers
Flowers, Cards and Breakfast has 22 words. Moms and Grandmas has 18 and Mother's Day History 17. Mothers Around the World has 22, Animal Mothers and Babies 20. All are under Start from a list. Easy Mother's Day gathers the 47 words of 3 to 5 letters. Hard Mother's Day has 17 of 8 to 12, up to Philadelphia.
Nine words for mom, eight animal pairs
Mothers Around the World holds nine words for mom, Madre, Nanay and Amma included. If a student's home language is missing, type their word at the end of the word list under the grid and the grid rebuilds. Animal Mothers and Babies holds eight pairs, such as Hen and Chick. Puzzles draw 16 of its 20 words, so naming a missing partner is a bonus question.
Tick Show clues, not words: the day's emblem is Carnation. The founder sent 500 to the first service in 1908.
Hand it out on the Friday before the second Sunday of May.
Questions and answers
When is Mother's Day around the world?
In the United States and Canada it is the second Sunday of May. Congress set the American date in 1914. Mexico keeps May 10, Britain and Ireland the fourth Sunday of Lent, Egypt March 21, Indonesia December 22 and Argentina the third Sunday of October.
Does it work for a child raised by someone else?
Yes. Grandma and Aunt sit in Mother's Day Favorites, the opening list, and Moms and Grandmas adds Caregiver, Guardian and Foster. The Caregiver clue says a stepmom, a foster mom or a grandparent counts. Introduce the worksheet as one for whoever looks after you.
Which settings fit which grade?
For kindergarten to grade 2, choose Easy Mother's Day, then open More options for Large print. From grade 6, pick Hard Mother's Day, press Hard and set 20 by 20, where Philadelphia can run backwards.