Pumpkin Word Search Printable

The pumpkin from vine to pie, with squash, carving and giant pumpkin contests, on one sheet with its key.

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Pumpkin Word Search

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

0 of 16 words found

NJHDJWLJSTEMUEL

ETDAOQETPHCDMET

OILGIMLCNDWRFQA

SCARGIPATCHSYPR

LNVAGOURDGWEPUU

AYHHIOXVRCERHMM

FOORANGEPIEAMPV

KFPULPACIDYSXKI

ASHARVESTRHELIN

JQREFHALLOWEENE

CUISNJSCEAEDABX

RALSOPNRTNODFEO

ASNOCTOBERKBWET

LHAOXJMSOUPIRRS

KIYRETEHTIERNHS

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.

PumpkinPUMPKIN
VineVINE
PatchPATCH
SeedSEED
StemSTEM
PulpPULP
GourdGOURD
HarvestHARVEST
PiePIE
SquashSQUASH
CarveCARVE
OrangeORANGE
LeafLEAF
SoupSOUP
OctoberOCTOBER
HalloweenHALLOWEEN

16 of 22 words from the Pumpkin Favorites list.

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Answer key: Pumpkin Word Search

NJHDJWLJSTEMUEL

ETDAOQETPHCDMET

OILGIMLCNDWRFQA

SCARGIPATCHSYPR

LNVAGOURDGWEPUU

AYHHIOXVRCERHMM

FOORANGEPIEAMPV

KFPULPACIDYSXKI

ASHARVESTRHELIN

JQREFHALLOWEENE

CUISNJSCEAEDABX

RALSOPNRTNODFEO

ASNOCTOBERKBWET

LHAOXJMSOUPIRRS

KIYRETEHTIERNHS

PUMPKIN, VINE, PATCH, SEED, STEM, PULP, GOURD, HARVEST, PIE, SQUASH, CARVE, ORANGE, LEAF, SOUP, OCTOBER, HALLOWEEN

Next step Make a puzzle from your own fall words Scramble the same pumpkin words

All 97 words

Parts of a Pumpkin Plant 18

Bush Some kinds have been bred to grow as a compact one and not as a long vine.
Flesh The part between the skin and the seeds; it is eaten roasted, mashed or in soup.
Flower Each plant has male ones and female ones; the female ones grow into fruit.
Fruit To a botanist a pumpkin is one of these, of the kind called a berry.
Hull The white outer coat of a pumpkin seed; some varieties grow seeds without one.
Kernel The light green inside of a pumpkin seed, once the white outer coat is off.
Leaf Cooks put it in a stir fry, a soup or a stew.
Orange The color of most pumpkins, though white and green ones also exist.
Pepo The botanist's name for the kind of berry that a pumpkin is.
Petal Each pumpkin flower has five, yellow to orange and joined together.
Pulp The soft inside of the fruit, which the thick shell encloses along with the seeds.
Pumpkin A winter squash, most often round and orange, with a thick shell around its seeds and pulp.
Rib One of the shallow ridges that mark the skin of many pumpkins.
Seed Flat and oval, about half an inch long; roasted ones are a common snack.
Skin The tough outer layer, smooth and slightly ribbed.
Stem It puts out tendrils that help the plant climb or spread along the ground.
Tendril A thin thread that curls around whatever it touches and holds a climbing plant up.
Vine The long trailing growth of the plant; if part is damaged, new ones quickly take its place.

Show all 97 words (79 more)

In the Pumpkin Patch 19

Acre US farmers harvested pumpkins from 68,100 of these units of land in 2025.
Bee The insect that usually carries pollen from one pumpkin flower to another.
California The second pumpkin state of 2025; a pumpkin of 2,749 pounds was weighed at a festival here in 2023.
China The country second in the world for pumpkins, squash and gourds in 2024, with 22 percent of the crop.
Farm In the 2022 count, more than 15,000 of these in the United States grew pumpkins to sell fresh.
Field The carving pumpkins named for Connecticut and for Kentucky both have this word in their names.
Grow Some 10,000 people a year try to do this with a giant pumpkin.
Harvest The gathering of a ripe crop; for pumpkins it comes in October.
Illinois The US state that grows the most pumpkins, most of them for canning.
India The country that grew the most pumpkins, squash and gourds in 2024, with 27 percent of the world's crop.
Mexico Pieces of pumpkin found in this country, from between 7000 and 5500 BC, are the oldest known.
Michigan One of the five top pumpkin states of 2025, with about 115 million pounds.
October The month of the pumpkin harvest and of most pumpkin festivals in the northern half of the world.
Patch A plot where pumpkins grow, often one where visitors can buy them.
Pollinate To carry pollen from flower to flower; where bees are too few, gardeners may have to do it by hand.
Soil Pumpkins are planted once this is at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit three inches down.
Texas Pumpkin is the official state squash here.
Warm Pumpkins are a crop for this kind of weather; cold below 65 degrees Fahrenheit can harm them.
Water A raw pumpkin is 92 percent this.

Pumpkins, Squash and Gourds 19

Andes The squash species that giant pumpkins belong to first grew near these South American mountains.
Argentina The squash species of the giant pumpkins comes from the north of this country, over 4,000 years ago.
Connecticut The traditional carving pumpkin of the United States is named for this state.
Courgette The name used in France and Britain for the zucchini.
Cucurbita The scientific name, Latin for gourd, of the group of plants that holds pumpkins and squash.
Cushaw A squash believed to come from southern Mexico, also called the silver-seed gourd.
Gourd A fruit of the same plant family, often with a hard shell; dried ones have served as tools and musical instruments.
Heirloom An old variety handed down by growers, as the Jarrahdale is.
Jarrahdale A pumpkin with blue-gray skin, bred in Australia and named after a town there.
Kabocha A Japanese winter squash shaped like a squat pumpkin, with hard, bumpy skin that is often dark green.
Kentucky A field pumpkin grown for carving carries this state's name.
Marrow A name for the fruit of a zucchini plant once it is fully grown.
Miniature Very small pumpkins of this kind are the heart of the pumpkin business in Terry County, Texas.
Squash A pumpkin is a winter one; the English word comes from a Native American language of Massachusetts.
Summer Squash of this kind are picked young and do not keep long.
Tropical A name sometimes given to pumpkins of the species that stands hot, humid weather best.
Turban An old squash, known since before 1820, often mottled in orange, red, white and green.
Winter Squash of this kind are picked fully grown, when the skin has hardened, and can be stored for months.
Zucchini A summer squash, picked while its seeds and rind are still soft.

Pumpkin in the Kitchen 17

Bake The whole shell can be cooked this way and then used as a bowl for soup.
Bread A moist quick loaf made with pumpkin, often with nuts, raisins or chocolate chips.
Broth Pumpkin soup is made by blending pumpkin with this or with stock.
Cinnamon A spice in the usual blend for pumpkin pie, along with nutmeg, ginger and cloves.
Dessert The sweet course of a meal; pumpkin pie is one.
Dressing Pumpkin seed oil is used as one on salads.
Loaf A long pan named for this shape is the usual one for baking pumpkin bread.
Pepitas Another name for pumpkin seeds, from Mexican Spanish words meaning little seed of squash.
Pie A dessert with a spiced pumpkin custard filling, usually baked without a top crust.
Puree Cooked pumpkin mashed smooth; it is sold in cans.
Raisins Dried grapes, often added to pumpkin bread.
Roast To cook with dry heat; both the flesh and the seeds of a pumpkin are done this way.
Soup A thick one is made from pumpkin puree and broth, and is served hot or cold.
Stock A cooking liquid; a vegetable one can be made from the tough skin of a pumpkin.
Thanksgiving The holiday in Canada and the United States at which pumpkin pie is a traditional dish.
Walnuts Nuts that are often added to pumpkin bread.
Zambia In this African country pumpkin leaves are boiled, then cooked with a paste of groundnuts.

Carving, Contests and Stories 24

Boat Giant pumpkins have been hollowed out and turned into one.
Cannon An air-powered one is among the machines used to hurl pumpkins for distance.
Carriage In a well-known fairy tale a fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into one until midnight.
Carve To cut a face or a picture into the rind of a hollowed pumpkin.
Chunking A contest of home-built machines: the team whose pumpkin flies farthest wins.
Contest Growers of giant pumpkins enter one to see whose is heaviest.
Decoration About 85 percent of US pumpkin land is planted for this and for fresh sale, not for canning.
Emblem The carved pumpkin stood for the harvest in the United States long before it became this for Halloween.
Face The picture most often carved into a pumpkin, scary or funny.
Festival A yearly event that celebrates the pumpkin harvest.
Finland The town of Salo in this country holds its Pumpkin Weeks every October.
Halloween The holiday around which pumpkins are carved into lanterns.
Hobby Growing giant pumpkins is mostly this, something done for fun and not for a living.
Ireland The custom of carving lanterns for Halloween grew from an old practice in this country.
Jack-o'-lantern A hollowed pumpkin with a carved face and a light inside; the name was first used for a carved vegetable in 1837.
Nova Scotia The Canadian province where the first pumpkin boat race was held, in 1999.
Orchestra A vegetable one plays pumpkin drums and trumpets made of zucchini.
Record The one for the heaviest pumpkin stands above 3,000 pounds.
Regatta A race in which people row boats made from giant pumpkins.
Rutabaga Also called a swede, a root vegetable that was carved into lanterns before the pumpkin was.
Scotland Turnips and swedes are still popular for carved lanterns here and in Northern Ireland.
Slingshot One of the simpler machines used to hurl pumpkins for distance.
Ton Giant pumpkins can weigh more than a metric one.
Turnip In Ireland and Scotland, lanterns were carved from this root vegetable before pumpkins took over.

How this list was compiled: 97 pumpkin words in five lists, from plant to pie. Facts in the clues were checked on October 16, 2026 against English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/, CC BY-SA 4.0), chiefly its Pumpkin article, the USDA Economic Research Service page on pumpkins and, for the carving custom, History.com's jack-o'-lantern article; spellings against English Wiktionary. This site is not affiliated with any of them. Licence: own work

How it works

This free printable pumpkin word search opens on 16 words: Vine, Stem, Seed and Pulp from the plant, Patch and Harvest from the field, Gourd, Squash, Pie and Carve. The five lists under the puzzle hold 97 pumpkin words.

Read the full guide

The plant, the patch and the pumpkin's relatives

Parts of a Pumpkin Plant has 18 words, from Vine and Tendril to Pepo, the botanist's name for the kind of berry a pumpkin is. In the Pumpkin Patch has 19, with Bee, Pollinate and Illinois. Pumpkins, Squash and Gourds has 19, such as Kabocha, Cushaw and Jarrahdale.

From the kitchen to the carving table

Pumpkin in the Kitchen has 17 words, from Pie and Puree to Pepitas, another name for the seeds. Carving, Contests and Stories has 24, among them Jack-o'-lantern, Regatta, a race in pumpkin boats, and Chunking, a contest of pumpkin-throwing machines.

Easy Pumpkin has 41 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Vine, Seed, Stem, Pie and Carve.
The Water clue in the list below the tool makes a quick estimating question: "A raw pumpkin is 92 percent this."

Questions and answers

Is a pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?

To a botanist it is a fruit: a kind of berry called a pepo, which grows from one of the plant's female flowers. Fruit and Pepo are both in Parts of a Pumpkin Plant.

Why do we carve pumpkins at Halloween?

The custom grew from an old practice in Ireland and Scotland of carving lanterns from turnips. Immigrants to North America took up the native pumpkin, which is much larger and easier to carve.

Which state grows the most pumpkins?

Illinois. It produced about 533 million pounds in 2025, slightly more than the next four states together, and most of its crop goes to canning. California, Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania followed.

How heavy is the biggest pumpkin ever grown?

More than 3,000 pounds: as of 2026 the largest ever weighed was 3,156 pounds. A pumpkin of 2,749 pounds set the record at a California festival in October 2023, and such records are broken again and again.

All 97 words

Parts of a Pumpkin Plant 18

In the Pumpkin Patch 19

Pumpkins, Squash and Gourds 19

Pumpkin in the Kitchen 17

Carving, Contests and Stories 24

How it works

The plant, the patch and the pumpkin's relatives

From the kitchen to the carving table

Questions and answers

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