Pumpkin Crossword Puzzle

Print a criss-cross vocabulary crossword about pumpkins: how they grow, their parts, squash relatives, the kitchen and carving.

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Pumpkin 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: Pumpkin Crossword

1PUL2P3RIA4VINE5STEMB6LC7SQUASHNT8HARVESTR9S10CANDLEE11GOURD

Across 1 PULP · 4 VINE · 5 STEM · 7 SQUASH · 8 HARVEST · 10 CANDLE · 11 GOURD

Down 1 PIE · 2 PATCH · 3 RIBS · 6 LANTERN · 9 SEED

Next step Find fall words in a word searchColor a pumpkin by number

All 114 clues

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From Seed to Harvest 22

  • Bee Without this visitor to the open flowers, pumpkins would not form
  • Blossom Yellow flower that closes for the day by late afternoon
  • Female The kind of flower that produces the fruit
  • Frost Icy cold that injures the young plants
  • Germinate Begin to grow, which the kernels will not do in cold ground
  • Gloves Worn at picking time because many kinds have sharp prickles
  • Harvest Gathering in the crop, which starts in late September
  • Hill Small mound in which four or five kernels are planted together
  • Hive One per acre is advised so that the flowers get pollinated
  • Irrigate Water the crop when a long dry spell comes in early summer
  • July By early in this month, pumpkins are usually in the ground
  • Mildew Powdery ___: white growth on the upper sides of the leaves
  • Patch Plot of ground where pumpkins lie among leaves
  • Pollen The male flowers produce it
  • Seed Flat and pale; plant it one inch deep
  • Shears Pruning ___: a tool for cutting pumpkins free with care
  • Sprout What a planted kernel sends up into the light
  • Tender Easily hurt by cold, as this vegetable is
  • Tendril Curly green grabber that winds about a fence or a stalk
  • Thin Pull the extra young plants so that the best two or three stay
  • Vine A pumpkin plant's long green runner
  • Weeds Hoeing keeps the plants free of these

Parts of a Pumpkin 23

  • Berry To a botanist, a pumpkin is a type of this
  • Blemish Mark or soft spot to avoid when choosing
  • Carotene Beta-___: what the bright color of a pumpkin is a giveaway for
  • Cavity The dark chamber in the middle, where the kernels hang
  • Flesh The thick edible layer, eaten roasted or mashed
  • Greek Language of the distant root word for "pumpkin", which meant a large melon
  • Handle What the stalk looks like, though it is not meant to be used as one
  • Heavy A good pumpkin feels this for its size
  • Husk White covering on most pumpkin kernels
  • Lid Cap cut from the top before the insides come out
  • Lopsided Leaning to one side, which does not make a pumpkin a bad one
  • Pepita Name for a pumpkin kernel, from Mexican Spanish
  • Pepo Cucurbita ___: species of some of the oldest known domesticated plants
  • Pompion Older English word that became "pumpkin" in the 1600s
  • Pounds A field pumpkin often weighs 6 to 18 of these
  • Pulp Wet, slippery insides of a pumpkin
  • Ribs Ridges that run from top to bottom
  • Rind Outer layer; when it is hard, the crop is ready
  • Round "Grows forth ___": meaning of a Massachusett word that may be the source of "pumpkin"
  • Skin The tough, fibrous exterior, sometimes simmered into a vegetable broth
  • Stem The stalk on top; pick a pumpkin that still has one
  • Strings Slimy fibers that cling to the kernels inside
  • Tonne The biggest pumpkins can come to more than one of these in mass

Squash, Gourds and Melons 24

  • Acorn Winter kind with lengthwise ridges and sweet, yellow-orange insides
  • Beans Crop planted with corn and pumpkins in the Three Sisters
  • Butternut Winter kind with a sweet, nutty taste, called a pumpkin in Australia
  • Calabash Cousin also known by the names bottle and birdhouse
  • Calabaza Variety from Cuba and the West Indies
  • Cantaloupe Relative called a rockmelon in Australia and New Zealand
  • Crookneck Summer kind also known simply as yellow, of the same species as some pumpkins
  • Cucumber Relative that originated in Asia; some kinds have no kernels at all
  • Cultivar A variety bred by growers, such as the Connecticut field pumpkin
  • Delicata Cream-colored cylinder with green or orange stripes
  • Genus Cucurbita is one; its name comes first in a two-part Latin plant name
  • Gourd Pumpkin cousin with a hard outside; many kinds have a long neck
  • Honeydew Cousin with an even, often green or yellowish outside and no musky smell
  • Hubbard Teardrop-shaped winter kind, often cooked in place of pumpkin
  • Kabocha Japanese variety, sometimes called Japanese pumpkin
  • Luffa Cousin whose fully grown, fibrous fruit becomes a scrubbing sponge
  • Maize Corn, by another name: one of the Three Sisters
  • Maxima Cucurbita ___: the species of the heaviest pumpkins ever grown
  • Mexico Where the oldest pumpkin fragments were found
  • Pattypan Summer kind with scalloped edges, a little like a flying saucer
  • Spaghetti Kind whose cooked insides pull apart into noodle-like strands
  • Squash A pumpkin is a winter kind of this
  • Watermelon Relative with a firm outside and juicy insides, usually deep red to pink
  • Zucchini Relative gathered young, before its kernels harden; a courgette to the French

In the Kitchen 23

  • Allspice Dried unripe fruit of a tree; it sometimes joins the dessert blend
  • Ashes Hot ___: where colonists are said to have baked a filled pumpkin
  • Bowl What a whole baked pumpkin can serve as at the table
  • Bread Moist quick loaf made with pumpkin
  • Canned Packed in tins, as commercial pumpkin for baking is
  • Cinnamon First spice named in the usual blend for a pumpkin dessert
  • Cloves Aromatic buds of a tree in the myrtle family, ground into the dessert blend
  • Cookies A dozen of these bake on one sheet; pumpkin goes into the dough
  • Crust Pastry base of a baked dessert
  • Custard Egg-thickened mixture; the pumpkin kind bakes on a pastry base
  • Garnish A pretty topping on a plate, such as a flower
  • Ginger Third spice named in the usual blend for a pumpkin dessert, hot on the tongue
  • Honey Colonists are thought to have filled a pumpkin with milk, spices and this
  • Nutmeg Second spice named in the usual blend for a pumpkin dessert, from a Myristica tree
  • Oil Thick dressing pressed from roasted kernels; it can look red or green
  • Pie Spiced pumpkin dessert served in wedges in late November
  • Pottage Thick stew, the first dish named in a pumpkin poem of about 1630
  • Puree Cooked pumpkin put through a blender or a sieve, sold in cans
  • Salad Dish in which the flowers are sometimes used
  • Snack Hulled or roasted kernels are a common one
  • Soup It can be served inside a whole baked pumpkin
  • Steam One of three ways named for cooking ripe pumpkin, with boiling and roasting
  • Sugar Baking pumpkins have a high content of it

Carving, Fairs and Contests 22

  • Autumn Season when pumpkins sit on porches
  • Candle Its flame flickers behind the cut-out grin
  • Carve Cut eyes and a grin into, with a grown-up's help
  • Catapult Device with a throwing arm, entered in pumpkin distance contests
  • Chunking Pumpkin ___: contest to throw one as far as possible
  • Decorate Paint or dress up, the main use of pumpkins in the United States
  • Drums What pumpkins become in a vegetable band
  • Festival Town party; one in Half Moon Bay, California, crowns the heaviest pumpkin
  • Hayride Trip across the fields on a load of hay or straw
  • Illinois State that grows the most pumpkins
  • Lantern Jack-o'-___: a pumpkin with a grin and a light inside
  • Maze Walk-through attraction cut out of a corn field
  • October Month in which a new record for the heaviest pumpkin was set in 2023
  • Peter Pumpkin eater of a nursery rhyme
  • Regatta Boat race; one in Nova Scotia floated its paddlers in enormous pumpkins
  • Scarecrow Ragged decoy in a hat, set out when the kernels are sown
  • Scoop Big spoon for emptying a pumpkin
  • Stencil Pattern taped on and traced before cutting
  • Trebuchet Throwing machine with a long arm, a favorite of pumpkin flingers
  • Turnip Before pumpkins, the Irish cut a light out of this white root
  • Wagon Cart that carries riders out to the field
  • Weigh-off Contest settled on a very big scale

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for grades 2 to 7. Growing and choosing facts were checked against the University of Illinois Extension pumpkin pages; plant, kitchen and contest facts against English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), the USDA Economic Research Service, the USDA National Agricultural Library and a University of Missouri history of the pumpkin, in October 2026. Kitchen clues name foods; none is advice about eating. Licence: own work

How it works

This pumpkin crossword puzzle fits Letter or A4, answer key included. The first puzzle has 12 words, among them Vine, Seed, Stem, Patch, Pulp, Gourd, Harvest and Pie. It is a plant and food sheet, with no ghosts or witches.

Read the full guide

Five sets after the patch words

From Seed to Harvest has Tendril, Blossom, Pollen and Germinate. Parts of a Pumpkin has Rind, Husk, Pepita and Carotene. Squash, Gourds and Melons has Zucchini, Butternut, Kabocha and Luffa. In the Kitchen has Puree, Custard, Nutmeg and Cloves. Carving, Fairs and Contests has Turnip, Trebuchet, Regatta and Weigh-off.

A science sheet too

The growing clues follow a university extension guide: seeds go in one inch deep, bees must visit the blossoms, and the crop comes in before heavy frost.

  • After Parts of a Pumpkin, an adult can cut a small pumpkin open so pupils can point to the Rind, Pulp, Ribs and Stem.

Questions and answers

What grade is the pumpkin crossword for?

Pumpkin Patch Words suits grades 2 to 4. The five themed sets suit grades 4 to 7; Squash, Gourds and Melons has the hardest spellings. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

Does the pumpkin 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.

Is a pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?

To a botanist a pumpkin is a fruit, a type of berry called a pepo. Gardeners and cooks call it a vegetable. Berry and Pepo are both answers in Parts of a Pumpkin.

Where do pumpkins come from?

Pumpkins are native to North America. The oldest fragments, found in Mexico, are dated between 7,000 and 5,500 BC. Mexico, Maize and Beans are answers in Squash, Gourds and Melons.

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