Parliamentary Procedure Crossword Puzzle

Print a criss-cross vocabulary crossword on how a meeting runs: motions, voting, officers, the order of business and debate.

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Parliamentary Procedure 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: Parliamentary Procedure Crossword

1B2G3AGENDALVL4RECESSOL5MINUTE6SAEJ7AC8QO9MOTIONURENOIN10ADJOURNTDYUYEM

Across 3 AGENDA · 4 RECESS · 5 MINUTES · 9 MOTION · 10 ADJOURN

Down 1 BALLOT · 2 GAVEL · 5 MAJORITY · 6 SECOND · 7 AMEND · 8 QUORUM · 10 AYE

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Motions and What They Do 27

  • Adjourn End the meeting
  • Amend Change the wording of a proposal
  • Appeal Challenge a decision of the chair
  • Divide Break one long question into parts that can be voted on singly
  • Friendly Said of a change that everyone sees as an improvement
  • Incidental Class of proposals that relate in different ways to the business being done
  • Limit Cap, as on the length of each speech
  • Main Kind of proposal that brings business before the group when nothing else is being considered
  • Motion What a member makes by saying "I move that we buy a flag"
  • Pending Said of a question that is before the group and not yet decided
  • Postpone Put off a question until a different day or hour
  • Precedence Rank: which proposal must be dealt with before another
  • Previous The ___ question: a demand to stop debate and vote now
  • Privileged Class of proposals about urgent matters that cannot wait
  • Ratify Confirm an action taken earlier without enough members present
  • Recess Short break, with members staying nearby
  • Reconsider Bring a decided question back; only a member who voted with the winners may ask
  • Refer Send a question to a smaller group for study
  • Renewal Bringing up again a proposal that was already disposed of
  • Rescind Cancel an action taken earlier
  • Resolution A proposal put in writing for greater formality
  • Second Word that shows one more member wants a proposal heard
  • Subsidiary Class of proposals that affect the one being considered
  • Substitute Change that replaces part or all of the wording
  • Suspend Set the rules aside for one purpose
  • Table In American meetings a proposal laid on it waits; in British ones it is up for debate
  • Withdraw Take a proposal back, which needs the group's leave once the chair has stated it

Voting 23

  • Abstain Choose not to vote
  • Acclamation Choosing someone for an office by a shout of approval, with nothing written
  • Aye Spoken "yes" in a vote
  • Ballot Slip of paper for a vote nobody else sees
  • Carried What the chair declares a proposal that got enough votes
  • Casting The ___ vote: one that breaks a deadlock
  • Consent General ___: agreement taken for granted when nobody objects
  • Division Vote in which members physically separate into groups
  • Election The choosing of people for offices
  • Lost What the chair declares a proposal that failed
  • Majority Eleven votes out of twenty, the smallest possible one
  • Nominate Put a name forward for an office
  • Plurality The most votes, though not more than half
  • Proxy Someone voting in another's place, generally not allowed in clubs
  • Quorum The number who must show up before any vote can be taken
  • Rising Kind of vote in which members stand up
  • Roll call Vote taken name by name down the list of those present
  • Tally Running total of the votes on each side
  • Teller Member named to add up the votes
  • Tie 12 for and 12 against, for example
  • Two-thirds Vote it takes to close debate: 20 of 30, for example
  • Unanimous 45 to 0, for example
  • Voice Kind of vote the chair judges by ear

Officers, Members and Committees 21

  • Ad hoc Latin for "to this": said of a group formed for one task
  • Advisor What a parliamentarian is, on questions of the rules
  • Assembly Deliberative ___: a body that meets to decide things together
  • Board ___ of directors: the small body at the head of a club or company
  • Caucus Meeting of the supporters of one party or side
  • Clerk Older title for the one who keeps the written account
  • Committee A few members given one job to work on between meetings
  • Convention Large gathering to which local clubs send voting members
  • Delegate Voting envoy that a local club sends to a state or national gathering
  • Ex officio Said of a member who sits on a body because of another post held
  • Guest Visitor who has no vote
  • Mover The member who makes a proposal
  • Nominee Each one's name goes on the slip before members mark their choice
  • President Title of a club's top elected leader, who usually runs the meeting
  • Pro tem "For the time being": said of a stand-in chair
  • Secretary Person who writes up what each meeting did
  • Sergeant ___-at-arms: the one appointed to keep order
  • Society A permanent ___: the 1876 rule book's term for a club that keeps meeting
  • Speaker The one talking; also the title of the one elected to head the US House
  • Standing Said of a permanent body such as a finance or membership group
  • Treasurer The one who reads out the balance on hand

Order of Business and Records 20

  • Adopt Pass, as a set of rules
  • Agenda List of a meeting's activities, start to finish
  • Announcements Items of general interest shared near the close
  • Bylaws A club's own governing document, article by article
  • Charter Document from a parent body that sets up a new local club
  • Constitution A group's highest document, above its other rules
  • Draft Unapproved wording, as the written account is until the members accept it
  • Dues Money each member pays to belong
  • Minutes They are read and approved at the start of the next meeting
  • Notice Word given ahead of time that a proposal will come up
  • Preamble The first paragraphs of a written proposal, which explain the reasons
  • Reports Spoken or written accounts given early in the usual order
  • Resolved Word that opens the action clause, followed by "That"
  • Session One meeting or a connected series of them
  • Signature Name penned at the foot of the written account
  • Sine die Latin for "without a date": how a final meeting ends
  • Special ___ orders: items set for a fixed time
  • Standard The ___ order of business has six headings
  • Unfinished ___ business: what was left over from last time
  • Whereas First word of each reason clause in a formal written proposal

Debate, Decorum and History 24

  • Commons House of ___: a book of its procedures was published in 1583
  • Congress The 1876 rules were based on the practice of this body
  • Courtesy By it, the 1876 rule book says, the maker of a proposal speaks first
  • Decorum Good manners in debate
  • Dilatory Said of a proposal made only to cause delay
  • Engineer Trade of the Army general who wrote the best-known rule book
  • Filibuster Hours-long talk used to keep a question from ever coming to a vote
  • Floor A member who may speak is said to have it
  • Gavel The chair strikes it on a sound block for attention
  • Germane Closely related to the question under discussion
  • Information Request for ___: a question asked to get a fact
  • Inquiry Member's question to the chair about how the rules work
  • Interrupt A rules objection may do this to a speech; most proposals may not
  • Jefferson He wrote the first American book on the subject in 1801, while presiding over the Senate
  • Measure "It is not the man, but the ___, that is the subject of debate"
  • Motives The 1876 rules say a member's must not be attacked, only the proposal
  • Parliament The English ___: its customs are where the subject's name comes from
  • Point ___ of order: a claim that a rule is being broken
  • Recognize What the chair does to give a member the right to speak
  • Remarks What a member makes when speaking, kept to the question
  • Robert Army man whose Rules of Order came out in 1876
  • Ruling What the chair gives when a member claims a rule was broken
  • Twice How many times a member may speak on one question under the 1876 rules
  • Yield Give up the right to speak, as by sitting down

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for grades 6 to 12 and for club officers. Terms were checked against English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), the 1876 first edition of Robert's Rules of Order, which is in the public domain, and, for two words, the American Heritage Dictionary, in October 2026. Licence: own work

How it works

This parliamentary procedure crossword puzzle fits Letter or A4, answer key included. The first puzzle has 12 basic words, among them Motion, Second, Quorum, Agenda, Minutes, Gavel, Amend and Adjourn. The clues follow American practice.

Read the full guide

Five sets after the basics

Motions and What They Do has Table, Postpone, Rescind and Reconsider. Voting has Plurality, Two-thirds, Proxy and Acclamation. Officers, Members and Committees has Treasurer, Delegate, Ad hoc and Ex officio. Order of Business and Records has Bylaws, Preamble, Whereas and Sine die. Debate, Decorum and History has Recognize, Yield, Germane and Filibuster.

Vocabulary, not a ruling

A group's own bylaws and the rule book it has adopted come first. Where a clue gives a rule of the 1876 first edition of Robert's Rules of Order, it says so.

  • Before officer elections or a mock meeting, print Motions and What They Do and Voting as a warm-up.

Questions and answers

What grade is the parliamentary procedure crossword for?

Meeting Basics suits grades 6 to 9 and a first student council or club meeting. The five themed sets suit grades 9 to 12 and adult clubs. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

Does the parliamentary procedure crossword puzzle have an answer key?

Yes. Each print ends with the key on a separate sheet: the solved grid and the answers in clue order. Nothing to pay and no account.

What is a quorum?

It is the minimum number of members who must be present for the group to do business. Where the bylaws do not set one, it is a majority of the members. Quorum is in the first puzzle.

What are the classes of motions?

The current Robert's Rules names five: main, subsidiary, privileged and incidental motions, and motions that bring a question again before the assembly. Main, Subsidiary, Privileged and Incidental are answers in the motions set.

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