Printable Photosynthesis Word Search

Print 16 photosynthesis words with an answer key, or swap in the parts of a leaf or a flower.

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Photosynthesis Word Search

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0 of 16 words found

TTXFROOTSGREENL

SYONSPAPHLOEMPG

HNBHGRFHCXYLEMT

HYHWNOROHMSCNTP

AAIRNDITLWATERY

NAJOUUHOOUHMRTP

TAITNCSSRMKOGFN

EBONOETYOTMLYVO

ESMOURANPSNOLMS

IOINWLRTLKQNDSU

NRNAOECHANLEOBG

TBOSTHHESTOMATA

RRLEAFFSTRNREDR

EPOGPHHIESOALOZ

OEVORGBSUNLIGHT

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.

SunlightSUNLIGHT
WaterWATER
AirAIR
EnergyENERGY
AbsorbABSORB
SugarSUGAR
StarchSTARCH
ProducerPRODUCER
StomataSTOMATA
LeafLEAF
RootsROOTS
XylemXYLEM
PhloemPHLOEM
PhotosynthesisPHOTOSYNTHESIS
ChloroplastCHLOROPLAST
GreenGREEN

16 of 24 words from the Photosynthesis Key Terms list.

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Answer key: Photosynthesis Word Search

TTXFROOTSGREENL

SYONSPAPHLOEMPG

HNBHGRFHCXYLEMT

HYHWNOROHMSCNTP

AAIRNDITLWATERY

NAJOUUHOOUHMRTP

TAITNCSSRMKOGFN

EBONOETYOTMLYVO

ESMOURANPSNOLMS

IOINWLRTLKQNDSU

NRNAOECHANLEOBG

TBOSTHHESTOMATA

RRLEAFFSTRNREDR

EPOGPHHIESOALOZ

OEVORGBSUNLIGHT

SUNLIGHT, WATER, AIR, ENERGY, ABSORB, SUGAR, STARCH, PRODUCER, STOMATA, LEAF, ROOTS, XYLEM, PHLOEM, PHOTOSYNTHESIS, CHLOROPLAST, GREEN

Next step Solve the same unit as a crossword Type in the terms from your own textbook chapter

All 120 words

What a Plant Takes In 19

Absorb To take in, as chlorophyll does with light and roots do with water.
Air The mix of gases around a plant; a tiny share of it is carbon dioxide.
Blue Chlorophyll absorbs light most strongly in this part of the spectrum and the red part.
Carbon dioxide A gas in the air that leaves take in and plants build into sugar.
Daylight The Sun's light between sunrise and sunset.
Energy What light carries; photosynthesis stores it in the bonds of sugars.
Intensity How strong light is; photosynthesis speeds up with it, then levels off.
Magnesium The metal at the center of each chlorophyll molecule.
Minerals Nutrients that roots take up from the soil, dissolved in water.
Nitrate A form of nitrogen that plants carry from roots to leaves; common in fertilizer.
Photon A single particle of light; its name comes from the Greek for light.
Rays Narrow beams of light, as from the Sun.
Reactant A substance that goes into a chemical reaction and is used up.
Red The color at the long-wave end of visible light; chlorophyll absorbs it well.
Solar Describes anything that comes from the Sun, such as the energy a leaf captures.
Spectrum The range of colors in light, with violet at one end and red at the other.
Sunlight Light from the Sun; the usual source of energy for photosynthesis.
Water Roots take it in; photosynthesis splits it and releases its oxygen.
Wavelength The distance over which a light wave repeats; it differs from color to color.

Show all 120 words (101 more)

What a Plant Makes 21

Atmosphere The layer of gases around Earth; photosynthesis keeps up its oxygen.
Autotroph An organism that makes its own food from light or chemicals instead of eating.
Biomass The total mass of the living things in a place.
Carbohydrate A sugar, or a larger molecule built from sugars, such as starch.
Cellulose The tough material of plant cell walls; cotton fiber is mostly this.
Equation A line of symbols that shows what goes into a reaction and what comes out.
Food What a green plant makes for itself instead of eating.
Glucose A simple sugar, C6H12O6, made from water and carbon dioxide.
Iodine A chemical that turns blue-black when it touches starch.
Oxygen The gas photosynthesis gives off; it comes from water that was split.
Producer A living thing that makes its own food; the first link in a food chain.
Product A substance formed by a chemical reaction.
Release To let out, as a leaf does with oxygen.
Respiration How cells get the energy out of sugar; most living things use oxygen for it.
Sap The fluid that moves through a plant's xylem and phloem.
Starch The form in which most green plants store energy; potatoes and rice are full of it.
Store To keep for later, as a plant does with starch.
Sucrose The sugar, made of glucose and fructose, that phloem carries around a plant.
Sugar A sweet-tasting carbohydrate; a plant stores the Sun's energy in it.
Tuber A swollen storage organ, such as a potato, that a plant packs with nutrients.
Wood The hard xylem tissue of trees; cellulose fibers make it strong.

Parts of a Leaf 20

Blade The broad, flat part of a leaf; also called the lamina.
Cuticle The waterproof layer on the outside of a leaf.
Epidermis The single layer of cells that covers a leaf; the name is Greek for over-skin.
Frond The leaf of a fern; the word is also used for palm leaves.
Guard cells The pair of cells that open and close a pore in a leaf.
Leaflet One of the leaf-like parts of a compound leaf.
Lobe A part of a leaf blade that juts out; the gaps beside it stop short of the main vein.
Margin The edge of a leaf.
Mesophyll The tissue between the upper and lower skin of a leaf; its cells hold chloroplasts.
Midrib The central vein of a leaf, continuing the line of the leaf stalk.
Needle The thin leaf of a pine or other conifer.
Palisade The upper layer of tall leaf cells, side by side; it does most of the photosynthesis.
Petiole The stalk that joins a leaf to the stem.
Pore A tiny opening, such as the gap between two guard cells.
Spongy Describes the loose lower layer of leaf cells, with large air spaces between them.
Stipule A small outgrowth at the base of a leaf stalk, usually one on each side.
Stomata Tiny pores in a leaf that let gases in and out; from the Greek for mouth.
Underside The lower face of a leaf, where most of the pores usually are.
Vein A bundle of tubes in a leaf that brings water in and carries sugar away.
Waxy Describes the coating that keeps water from evaporating off a leaf.

Parts of a Plant 19

Bark The outermost layer of a woody stem or root.
Branch A stem that grows off from another stem.
Cotyledon A seed leaf: part of the embryo inside a seed, and often the first leaf to appear.
Flower The reproductive part of many plants, where their seeds form.
Leaf The flat green organ where a plant does most of its photosynthesis.
Phloem The living tissue that carries sugar around a plant; named from the Greek for bark.
Root hair A thin outgrowth of one cell near a root tip; it collects water and minerals.
Roots The parts that anchor a plant and take in water and minerals.
Sapling A young tree.
Seedling A young plant that has just grown from a seed.
Shoot A stem together with its leaves and buds; the new growth that rises from a seed.
Stalk A slender stem that holds up a leaf, a flower or a fruit.
Stem The part that holds up leaves and flowers and carries water and sugar between them.
Taproot A thick main root that grows straight down, as in a carrot.
Trunk The woody main stem of a tree.
Twig A small, thin branch of a tree or bush.
Vascular Describes the tissue, xylem and phloem, that moves fluids through a plant.
Vessel A long water tube in the xylem, made of cells connected end to end.
Xylem The tissue that carries water up from the roots; named from the Greek for wood.

Parts of a Flower 20

Anther The part of a stamen that holds the pollen sacs.
Bloom Another word for a flower; also, to open into flower.
Calyx All the sepals of one flower, taken together.
Carpel One unit of the pistil; a pistil is one of these or several fused together.
Corolla All the petals of one flower, taken together.
Filament The stalk of a stamen.
Fruit The ripened ovary of a flower, with the seeds inside.
Nectar A sugar-rich liquid that flowers make; it attracts bees and is the source of honey.
Ovary The wide base of the pistil; it holds the ovules and ripens into the fruit.
Ovule A small structure inside the ovary that becomes a seed after fertilization.
Peduncle The stalk that holds up a single flower or a cluster of flowers.
Petal One of the often brightly colored parts of a flower that attract pollinators.
Pistil The seed-making part of a flower: a stigma, a style and an ovary.
Pollen The powder of tiny grains that carries a flower's male cells.
Receptacle The thickened end of the stalk, from which the parts of a flower grow.
Seed An embryo plant and its stored nutrients inside a protective coat.
Sepal One of the usually green parts that protect a flower while it is in bud.
Stamen The pollen-making part of a flower: a filament with an anther on it.
Stigma The tip of the pistil, often sticky or feathery, which receives pollen.
Style The pillar-like stalk between stigma and ovary; pollen tubes grow down it.

Inside the Chloroplast 21

ATP A small molecule that carries energy inside every living cell.
Calvin cycle The reactions in the stroma that build sugar from carbon dioxide with ATP and NADPH.
Carbon The element, symbol C, that a plant takes from the air and builds into sugar.
Carotenoid A yellow, orange or red pigment; it colors carrots and some autumn leaves.
Chlorophyll The green pigment that captures light; its name is Greek for pale green leaf.
Chloroplast The green organelle in plant cells where photosynthesis takes place.
Electron A tiny charged particle; the light reactions strip these from water.
Enzyme A molecule, usually a protein, that speeds up a chemical reaction in a living thing.
Grana Stacks of thylakoids that look like stacks of coins; one stack is a granum.
Green The color of most leaves; chlorophyll absorbs it poorly and reflects it.
Lumen The space inside a thylakoid.
Membrane A thin layer that encloses a cell or one of its parts, such as a thylakoid.
NADPH A carrier that brings electrons and hydrogen to the Calvin cycle.
Photolysis The splitting of water by light, which releases oxygen.
Photosynthesis The process that turns light energy, water and carbon dioxide into sugar and oxygen.
Photosystem A unit of proteins and pigments in the thylakoid membrane that captures light.
Pigment A substance with a color of its own, because it absorbs some colors of light.
Reflect To bounce light back, as a leaf does with green light.
Rubisco The enzyme that captures carbon dioxide; the most abundant enzyme on Earth.
Stroma The fluid inside a chloroplast, around the thylakoids; sugar is built here.
Thylakoid A flattened sac inside a chloroplast; its membrane holds the chlorophyll.

How this list was compiled: Own work: the word list and every clue were written for this page. The facts in the clues were checked on 2026-10-06 against English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), among them the articles on photosynthesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis), the leaf (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaf), the flower (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower) and the chloroplast (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroplast). Spellings were checked the same day against English Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/). Licence: own work

How it works

This printable photosynthesis word search follows the equation: one list for what a plant takes in, one for what it makes, then the parts of a leaf, a plant, a flower and the chloroplast.

Read the full guide

A printable parts of a flower word search

Pick Parts of a Flower under Start from a list and the sheet prints as Parts of a Flower Word Search. Its 20 words run past Petal and Sepal to Corolla, Calyx, Carpel, Receptacle and Peduncle. Parts of a Leaf has 20 too, from Blade, Petiole and Midrib to Cuticle and Guard cells.

An easy list, a hard list and a biology list

Easy Photosynthesis keeps to 37 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Leaf, Stem, Roots, Sugar and Water. For a biology class, Inside the Chloroplast has 21 words, among them Thylakoid, Stroma, Grana, Photosystem, Photolysis, Rubisco and Calvin cycle. Hard Photosynthesis collects the 23 longest, 9 to 14 letters each.

Carbon dioxide, Guard cells, Root hair and Calvin cycle each hide as one run of letters: CARBONDIOXIDE.
ATP, NADPH, Grana and Lumen are short, yet Easy Photosynthesis leaves them out. They wait in Inside the Chloroplast.

Questions and answers

What is the word equation for photosynthesis?

Carbon dioxide + water + light energy → sugar + oxygen. The sugar is glucose; the oxygen comes from water that the light reactions split. Carbon dioxide is a word in What a Plant Takes In; the key terms have the element, Carbon.

What are the parts of a flower?

Sepals, petals, stamens and a pistil, all on the receptacle. A stamen is a filament with an anther; a pistil is a stigma, a style and an ovary that holds the ovules. Every one of those words is in Parts of a Flower.

Why are leaves green?

Chlorophyll absorbs blue and red light strongly and green light poorly, so the green is reflected to your eye. Blue, Red, Green, Reflect and Chlorophyll are all hidden in these lists.

Does the photosynthesis word search come with an answer key?

Yes, as page 2 on Letter or A4. For a vocabulary check, tick Show clues, not words, and Stomata prints as "Tiny pores in a leaf that let gases in and out; from the Greek for mouth."

All 120 words

What a Plant Takes In 19

What a Plant Makes 21

Parts of a Leaf 20

Parts of a Plant 19

Parts of a Flower 20

Inside the Chloroplast 21

How it works

A printable parts of a flower word search

An easy list, a hard list and a biology list

Questions and answers

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