Pilgrim Word Search Printable

Print 15 Pilgrim words in one grid, from Mayflower to Harvest, with the answer key on a second page.

Name Date

Pilgrim Word Search

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

0 of 15 words found

IDESHIPICAPECOD

HARVESTAESSFNIM

HPLYMOUTHARBORN

EFSWENSLUFSVEHN

EOSAVOYAGEEFBWP

SGLMMLTNDTTPLWD

OSEPARATISTWTLY

DNRAYTIIGHLEABD

IAHNFVUCBSESBZA

URROLLPILGRIMGE

IHIAOBHUIESTIYP

UNWGWCOMPACTTIP

CLSPEEDWELLXENN

SHUHRRHDMDVOWEU

CUTCOLONYHSLMLC

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.

PilgrimPILGRIM
SeparatistSEPARATIST
MayflowerMAYFLOWER
SpeedwellSPEEDWELL
VoyageVOYAGE
ShipSHIP
AtlanticATLANTIC
Cape CodCAPE COD
PlymouthPLYMOUTH
ColonyCOLONY
CompactCOMPACT
HarborHARBOR
SettlersSETTLERS
WampanoagWAMPANOAG
HarvestHARVEST

15 words from the Pilgrim list.

Start from a list

Easy: words go across and down.

More options

Show clues, not words

Word list

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

The puzzle changes as you go. See the puzzle

Answer key: Pilgrim Word Search

IDESHIPICAPECOD

HARVESTAESSFNIM

HPLYMOUTHARBORN

EFSWENSLUFSVEHN

EOSAVOYAGEEFBWP

SGLMMLTNDTTPLWD

OSEPARATISTWTLY

DNRAYTIIGHLEABD

IAHNFVUCBSESBZA

URROLLPILGRIMGE

IHIAOBHUIESTIYP

UNWGWCOMPACTTIP

CLSPEEDWELLXENN

SHUHRRHDMDVOWEU

CUTCOLONYHSLMLC

PILGRIM, SEPARATIST, MAYFLOWER, SPEEDWELL, VOYAGE, SHIP, ATLANTIC, CAPE COD, PLYMOUTH, COLONY, COMPACT, HARBOR, SETTLERS, WAMPANOAG, HARVEST

Next step Make a puzzle from your own colony unit words Scramble these Pilgrim words

All 86 words

Leaving England and Holland 21

Amsterdam The Dutch city where the congregation stayed briefly before moving on.
Carpenter A worker who builds with wood; one of the jobs the group did in Holland.
Cloth Woven fabric. Most of the group found work in the trades that made it.
Congregation The members of one church. This one moved from England to Holland, and part of it went on to America.
Dartmouth The English port where the two vessels put in so that leaks in the smaller one could be sealed.
Delfshaven The Dutch port that the smaller of the two vessels left in July 1620 with the Leiden group on board.
Freedom The right to choose for yourself. In Holland the group had it in matters of religion.
Holland The Dutch land where the group could practice its religion without fear.
Investors People who pay for a venture and expect a share of what it earns. A company of them paid for the passage.
Journey Travel over a long distance, by land or by sea.
Leiden The Dutch city where the congregation lived for 11 or 12 years before sailing.

Show all 86 words (75 more)

Leaving England and Holland, continued

Pastor The minister who leads a congregation. Theirs stayed behind in Leiden with most of the members.
Pilgrim A person on a long journey with a religious purpose. By the early 1800s the Mayflower passengers were popularly called this.
Printer A worker who presses ink onto paper to make books and pamphlets; one of the jobs the group did in Holland.
Puritan A person who wanted to purify the Church of England from the inside instead of leaving it.
Scrooby The village in Nottinghamshire, England, where the congregation that founded Plymouth first gathered.
Separatist A person who wanted new church congregations apart from the Church of England, which English law did not allow.
Seven Years How long the colonists agreed to work for the company before everything was divided.
Southampton The English port where the two vessels met before setting out together.
Tailor A worker who makes and mends clothes; one of the jobs the group did in Holland.
Worship To pray and hold religious services. The group wanted to do it in a church of its own.

Mayflower Voyage 24

Anchor A heavy hook dropped to the sea floor to hold a vessel in place.
Atlantic The ocean between England and America.
Beam A long, heavy timber in a frame. A cracked one was raised back into place with a great iron screw.
Cape Cod The hook of land in Massachusetts that the passengers reached on November 11, 1620.
Cargo Goods carried to be sold. The 102 passengers lived on the dark, cold decks built for it.
Crew The sailors and officers who work a vessel. About 20 to 30 sailed on this one.
Forecastle The room at the front where the common sailors lived, always wet and cold.
Hudson The river in present-day New York near which the group had planned to settle.
Leak To let water in through a crack or a hole.
Master The 1600s word for the officer in charge of sailing a merchant vessel. Today we say captain.
Mayflower The vessel that carried 102 passengers from England to New England in 1620.
Passengers People who ride on a vessel without working it. There were 102, living on the cargo decks.
Provincetown The harbor at the tip of the Cape where the anchor first dropped.
Seasick Ill from the rolling of the waves, as many of the passengers were.
September The month in 1620 when the crossing began, on the 6th.
Shallop A smaller sailing boat, carried on board in pieces and used to explore the coast.
Ship A large vessel that sails the sea. Before 1620 this one carried wine and cloth around Europe.
Shoals Shallow places that can wreck a vessel. Dangerous ones stopped the trip south to the Hudson River.
Sixty-six Days How long the crossing took, from September 6 to November 11, 1620.
Speedwell The smaller vessel that leaked, forced two returns to England and was left behind.
Stern The back of a vessel, its driest and most comfortable part.
Storm Violent weather at sea. One cracked a massive wooden beam halfway across.
Virginia The English colony whose northern part the group had permission to settle.
Voyage A long trip by sea. This one took 66 days.

Plymouth Colony 23

Body Politic Two words from the agreement of 1620. The men who signed combined into a "civil" one.
Colony A settlement ruled by a faraway country. This one lasted from 1620 to 1691.
Common House The first building, 20 feet square and put up for everyone's use in January 1621.
Compact An agreement. The one signed on board on November 11, 1620, bound the group to make and obey just laws.
December The month in 1620 when the vessel reached the harbor where the town was built, on the 16th.
Fortune Name of the second vessel, which arrived in November 1621.
Freeman A full citizen of the colony, with the right to vote and hold office.
Governor The chief officer of a colony.
Harbor Sheltered water where vessels can anchor safely. A good one helped the group decide where to build.
Hill High ground. The spot chosen for the settlement was on one, near plenty of water.
Laws Rules everyone must follow. The men who signed in 1620 promised to obey "just and equal" ones.
New England The region of North America where the group stayed instead of sailing on.
Palisade A tall wall of wooden stakes. One was built around the settlement in the second winter.
Patent Written permission from the king or a company to settle land. The first one did not cover New England.
Plymouth The town the settlers began building in December 1620, and the English port they had last sailed from.
Rock A large stone. One on the shore was first named as the landing place 121 years after the landing.
Settlers People who make a new home in a place. In November 1621 a second vessel brought 37 more.
Sickness Illness. The colonists called the colds, coughs and fevers of the first months the "general" one.
Signers The 41 men who put their names to the agreement on board.
Survive To stay alive. Only 52 people did through the first year.
Timber Wood cut for building or sale. With fish and furs, it was to be sent back to England for the investors.
Wattle Woven sticks. Plastered with clay called daub, they made the walls of the first building.
Winter The cold season. About half of those who had sailed died during the first one.

Wampanoag Homeland 18

Allies Partners who promise to help each other. The agreement of 1621 made the two peoples this in time of war.
Corn The grain that a Wampanoag man who lived with the colonists taught them to grow.
First Light Two words from "People of the ___ ___", the meaning the Wampanoag give their name.
Fish Food from the water. With game, it added to the crops that Wampanoag women grew.
Game Wild animals hunted for food.
Harvest The gathering of ripe crops. In fall 1621 the colonists kept their first with a celebration.
Homeland The land where a people has always lived. The Wampanoag have lived on theirs for over 12,000 years.
March The month in 1621 when the colonists and the Wampanoag made their agreement.
Neighbors People who live near each other.
Ninety The number of Wampanoag men who came with their leader to the celebration of fall 1621.
Patuxet The Wampanoag village that had stood where Plymouth was built. Sickness had emptied it before 1620.
Planting Putting seeds in the ground so that crops will grow.
Pokanoket The Wampanoag community whose leader made a treaty with the colonists in March 1621.
Protection Keeping someone safe from harm. The agreement of 1621 promised it by each side to the other.
Three Days How long the celebration of fall 1621 lasted.
Treaty A formal agreement between peoples. The one of March 1621 had six points.
Wampanoag The Native people on whose homeland Plymouth was built.
Wetu The Wampanoag word for a domed house.

How this list was compiled: Own work: the 86 words and every clue were written for this page. Dates, places and numbers were checked on October 9, 2026 against Plimoth Patuxet Museums (https://plimoth.org/for-students/homework-help/who-were-the-pilgrims and https://plimoth.org/for-students/homework-help/mayflower-and-mayflower-compact), Pilgrim Hall Museum (https://www.pilgrimhall.org/ap_mayflower_compact.htm) and English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrims_(Plymouth_Colony), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wampanoag and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Rock. Licence: own work

How it works

This Pilgrim word search printable hides 15 words, among them Voyage, Harbor, Colony, Compact, Harvest, Settlers and Ship. Four more lists follow the group from England and Holland across the Atlantic to Plymouth and the Wampanoag homeland.

Read the full guide

Four lists, from Scrooby to Plymouth

Start from a list splits the 86 words: Leaving England and Holland (21) has Scrooby, Leiden and Separatist; Mayflower Voyage (24) has Speedwell, Shallop and Sixty-six Days; Plymouth Colony (23) has Compact, Patent and Common House; Wampanoag Homeland (18) has Patuxet, Pokanoket and Wetu.

A history list, not a holiday list

The words are the journey and the first year: "The first building, 20 feet square and put up for everyone's use in January 1621." is Common House. Turkey and pie are on the Thanksgiving word search. No person is a puzzle word; type Bradford, Squanto or Massasoit on the last line of the list to add one.

Easy Pilgrim keeps to 16 words of 4 or 5 letters, such as Ship, Crew, Corn, Rock and Wetu.
The grid drops spaces and hyphens, so look for CAPECOD, COMMONHOUSE, BODYPOLITIC and SIXTYSIXDAYS.
Under More options, tick Show clues, not words: "The back of a vessel, its driest and most comfortable part." leads to Stern.

Questions and answers

Who were the Pilgrims?

English colonists who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 and founded Plymouth Colony. The core of the group were Separatists, who had left the Church of England and lived in Leiden, Holland, for 11 or 12 years before the voyage.

How long was the Mayflower voyage?

66 days. The ship left England on September 6, 1620, carrying 102 passengers, and reached Cape Cod on November 11. It reached Plymouth Harbor on December 16.

What was the Mayflower Compact?

An agreement signed on board on November 11, 1620, by 41 of the men. They combined into a "civil body politic" and promised to obey just and equal laws while they waited for a new patent from England.

What is the difference between Pilgrims and Puritans?

Both wanted a simpler church. Puritans stayed in the Church of England and tried to purify it. The Separatists at the heart of the Pilgrim group left it to form congregations of their own, which English law did not allow.

All 86 words

Leaving England and Holland 21

Leaving England and Holland, continued

Mayflower Voyage 24

Plymouth Colony 23

Wampanoag Homeland 18

How it works

Four lists, from Scrooby to Plymouth

A history list, not a holiday list

Questions and answers

More tools