Printable Protons, Neutrons and Electrons Word Search

An atomic structure vocabulary sheet with its answer key: the three particles, their charges and where they sit.

Name Date

Protons, Neutrons and Electrons Word Search

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0 of 20 words found

VQIMASHELLBTTTN

CRYOTFDREPELIFE

FONIONIOIHORBIT

MLGRMGCAZLSENSV

ANUCLEONTNSOROY

SVEAXTAUOEPNMTE

SALLRTECPUREROF

ELEMENTLOTOUCPE

DECYKBIESRTTLED

XNTDGPNUIAOROQE

ACRHYAISTLNOULK

OEOYATLDITNNDOR

LDNEGATIVETRIIW

IBLCHARGENLNTSJ

ECATTRACTYDYYAD

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.

ProtonPROTON
NeutronNEUTRON
ElectronELECTRON
NucleusNUCLEUS
ChargeCHARGE
PositivePOSITIVE
NegativeNEGATIVE
NeutralNEUTRAL
NucleonNUCLEON
MassMASS
AttractATTRACT
RepelREPEL
CloudCLOUD
OrbitORBIT
IonION
IsotopeISOTOPE
ElementELEMENT
ShellSHELL
AtomATOM
ValenceVALENCE

20 words from the Atom Key Terms list.

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Answer key: Protons, Neutrons and Electrons Word Search

VQIMASHELLBTTTN

CRYOTFDREPELIFE

FONIONIOIHORBIT

MLGRMGCAZLSENSV

ANUCLEONTNSOROY

SVEAXTAUOEPNMTE

SALLRTECPUREROF

ELEMENTLOTOUCPE

DECYKBIESRTTLED

XNTDGPNUIAOROQE

ACRHYAISTLNOULK

OEOYATLDITNNDOR

LDNEGATIVETRIIW

IBLCHARGENLNTSJ

ECATTRACTYDYYAD

PROTON, NEUTRON, ELECTRON, NUCLEUS, CHARGE, POSITIVE, NEGATIVE, NEUTRAL, NUCLEON, MASS, ATTRACT, REPEL, CLOUD, ORBIT, ION, ISOTOPE, ELEMENT, SHELL, ATOM, VALENCE

Next step Find the elements by name Type in the atom words from your own notes

All 114 words

Protons, Neutrons and Electrons 32

Attract To pull toward each other, as unlike charges do.
Cathode ray A stream of electrons in a glass tube; study of it revealed the electron in 1897.
Center The place in an atom where the nucleus is.
Charge The property of matter that is either positive or negative; like kinds repel.
Cloud The region of negative charge that surrounds a nucleus.
Composite Describes a particle, such as a proton, that is made of other particles.
Dense Describes the nucleus: nearly all of the mass in a tiny part of the space.
Electric Describes the charge on a proton and the force between charged particles.
Electron The negatively charged particle, almost 2,000 times lighter than a proton.
Elementary Describes a particle, such as an electron, that is not made of other particles.
Equal The same in number, as protons and electrons are in a neutral atom.
Ion An atom with a net charge, because its electrons and protons differ in number.
Light Having little mass, as the electron does beside a proton or a neutron.
Mass The quantity measured in daltons; a proton's is about 1,836 times an electron's.
Minus The sign written for one unit of negative charge.

Show all 114 words (99 more)

Protons, Neutrons and Electrons, continued

Negative The kind of charge an electron has.
Neutral Having no net charge, as an atom with equal protons and electrons does.
Neutron The particle in the nucleus with no charge, slightly heavier than a proton.
Nucleon Either of the two kinds of particle found in the center of an atom.
Nucleus The small, dense center of an atom, where almost all of its mass is.
Opposite What an electron's charge is to a proton's, though the two are the same in size.
Orbit The path around the nucleus that an electron in a shell may be pictured to follow.
Particle A very small piece of matter.
Plum pudding The old model of an atom: electrons spread through a ball of positive charge.
Plus The sign written for one unit of positive charge.
Positive The kind of charge a proton has.
Proton The positively charged particle in the nucleus; its count decides the element.
Repel To push away from each other, as like charges do.
Stable Lasting; a proton is this kind of particle, and a free neutron is not.
Subatomic Describes any particle smaller than an atom.
Tiny Extremely small, like an atom: a million carbon ones would span one hair.
Zero The electric charge of a neutron.

Atomic Number, Isotopes and Ions 25

Abundance The share of an element's atoms that are one particular isotope.
Add What to do with the protons and the neutrons to find the mass number.
Anion An ion with a negative charge: it has more electrons than protons.
Atomic number How many protons are in the nucleus; it is written Z and names the element.
Cation An ion with a positive charge: it has fewer electrons than protons.
Copper The element of any atom that holds 29 protons.
Deuterium Heavy hydrogen: one proton and one neutron in the nucleus.
Differ What isotopes of one element do in their numbers of neutrons.
Element One kind of atom; the number of protons decides which.
Gain What an atom does with an electron to take on a negative charge.
Heavy Describes hydrogen whose nucleus holds a neutron as well as a proton.
Ionize To give an atom a charge by adding or removing electrons.
Isobar A nuclide with the same number of nucleons as another but a different element.
Isotone A nuclide that has as many neutrons as another but different protons.
Isotope A form of an element set apart from the others only by its count of neutrons.
Lose What an atom does with an electron to take on a positive charge.
Mass number The total count of protons and neutrons in a nucleus, written A.
Net Describes the overall charge of an ion, which is not zero.
Nuclide A kind of atom, named by its numbers of protons and neutrons.
Periodic Describes the table that arranges the elements in rows and columns.
Protium The common form of hydrogen: one proton and no neutron.
Same What the proton number is for every isotope of one element.
Subtract What to do with the proton count from the mass number to find the neutrons.
Tritium The rare, radioactive form of hydrogen: one proton and two neutrons.
Uranium The element with 92 protons in its nucleus and 92 electrons around it.

Electron Shells 27

Absorb To take in, as an atom does light of certain colors.
Atom The basic particle of a chemical element.
Capacity The number of electrons a shell or an orbital can hold.
Configuration How an atom's electrons are spread among its orbitals.
Core The nucleus together with the electrons that are not in the outermost shell.
Diagram A drawing; the dot kind shows the bonds and unshared electrons of a molecule.
Dot The mark used for an electron in a drawing of a molecule's bonds.
Eight The most electrons that fit in the second shell.
Emit To give off, as an atom does light when an electron drops to a lower energy.
Energy level One of the fixed, separate steps that an electron in an atom can occupy.
Excited Describes an atom with more energy than its lowest possible amount.
Fill What electrons do first to the subshells of lowest energy.
Free Describes an electron that is not attached to an atom.
Full Describes a shell that holds every electron it can.
Ground state The lowest-energy condition of an atom.
Inner Describes the shells near the nucleus, which belong to the atomic core.
Jump With "quantum", the change of an electron between two energy levels.
Outer Describes the shell farthest from the nucleus, whose electrons form bonds.
Pair Two electrons with opposite spins in the same orbital.
Period A row of the table of elements; each one stands for an electron shell.
Share What two atoms do with electrons in a covalent bond.
Shell A layer around the nucleus that holds electrons; the first holds up to two.
Spin A built-in property of an electron; two in one orbital must have opposite ones.
Static Describes electricity that comes from an imbalance of charges on a surface.
Transfer The passing of an electron from one atom to another.
Two The most electrons that fit in the first shell.
Valence Describes the electrons in the outermost shell, which can form bonds.

Inside the Nucleus 30

Alpha particle Two protons and two neutrons in one bound group, the same as a helium nucleus.
Annihilate To destroy each other, as a particle and its antiparticle do when they collide.
Antineutron An antimatter particle with no net charge and the mass of its ordinary twin.
Antiproton The antimatter partner of the hydrogen nucleus, with a charge of minus one.
Baryon A particle made of three quarks; protons and neutrons are examples.
Beta particle A fast electron or positron sent out by a nucleus.
Binding With "energy", what it takes to pull a nucleus apart into its nucleons.
Decay The loss of energy by an unstable nucleus, which gives off radiation.
Diameter The width of a nucleus, tens of thousands of times smaller than that of its atom.
Down quark The partner particle of which a neutron holds two and a proton one.
Energy What fission releases in very large amounts.
Femtometer A quadrillionth of a meter, the unit for the size of a nucleus.
Fermion A member of the class of particles that includes every quark and lepton.
Fission The splitting of a nucleus into smaller nuclei.
Foil The thin metal sheet at which a beam of alpha particles was aimed to find the nucleus.
Fusion The joining of two or more nuclei into a larger one.
Gamma ray Penetrating radiation that can arise when a nucleus breaks down.
Gluon The massless particle that binds quarks together.
Hadron A particle built from two or more quarks, such as a proton.
Lepton A particle, such as an electron, that the strong interaction does not affect.
Merge To combine into one, as nuclei do in fusion.
Meson A particle usually made of one quark and one antiquark.
Nuclear Having to do with the center of an atom, as fission and fusion do.
Positron The antimatter partner of the electron, with the same mass and a positive charge.
Scatter To bounce off in new directions, as alpha particles do from a thin metal sheet.
Split To divide into smaller parts, as a nucleus does in fission.
Strong force The interaction that confines quarks and binds protons and neutrons in a nucleus.
Unstable Describes a nucleus that will lose energy by giving off radiation.
Up quark The lightest particle of its family; a proton holds two and a neutron one.
Weak The interaction by which a free neutron breaks down.

How it works

This printable protons, neutrons and electrons word search puts all three particles on the first grid with 17 more atom words, such as Nucleus, Shell, Charge and Isotope. Bonds and the first 20 elements are on the chemistry word search.

Read the full guide

The three particles and their charges

Protons, Neutrons and Electrons, under Start from a list, has 32 words: the three particles, their charges (Positive, Negative, Zero, Plus, Minus) and words such as Nucleon, Subatomic, Attract, Repel and Plum pudding.

Isotopes, shells and the nucleus

Atomic Number, Isotopes and Ions has 25 words, such as Mass number, Cation, Anion, Deuterium and Tritium. Electron Shells has 27, among them Valence, Energy level and Ground state. Inside the Nucleus has 30, from Up quark and Gluon to Fission and Fusion.

Atomic number, Mass number, Up quark and Alpha particle hide closed up: UPQUARK.

Questions and answers

What are the charges of protons, neutrons and electrons?

A proton has a positive charge of +1 and an electron a negative charge of -1, equal in size and opposite in sign. A neutron has no charge. With as many protons as electrons, an atom is neutral.

Where are protons, neutrons and electrons found in an atom?

Protons and neutrons are bound together in the nucleus, the small, dense center that holds almost all of the mass. The electrons surround it as a cloud of negative charge, arranged in shells.

How do you find the number of neutrons in an atom?

Subtract the atomic number, which is the number of protons, from the mass number. Carbon-14 has a mass number of 14 and 6 protons, so it has 8 neutrons.

Which is heavier, a proton or an electron?

A proton, by far: its mass is about 1,836 times that of an electron. A neutron is slightly heavier than a proton, and more than 99.94 percent of the mass of an atom is in the nucleus.

Does the protons, neutrons and electrons word search have an answer key?

Yes. Print it on Letter or A4 and a second sheet follows the puzzle: the key, where each of the 20 words is ringed. With Show clues, not words ticked, Positive is listed as "The kind of charge a proton has."

All 114 words

Protons, Neutrons and Electrons 32

Protons, Neutrons and Electrons, continued

Atomic Number, Isotopes and Ions 25

Electron Shells 27

Inside the Nucleus 30

How it works

The three particles and their charges

Isotopes, shells and the nucleus

Questions and answers

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