Simple Machines Word Search

Print 16 simple machine words with an answer key, or swap in levers by class, wedges or pulleys.

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

0 of 16 words found

RWHEELANDAXLEHC

AUTPUYVQHDRASCO

MALDPIVOTTTWORK

PGADVANTAGEETGM

UECELISOIRPDERO

LNLATUCMNOLGSOT

LAEEAROTPFIEEOC

EAPDTACDFLGPEVT

YMEENSCISSORSEL

KLOSDGDUCSTJALS

WAIEHPUANTBFWOC

OEAEASWOCROWBAR

XFULCRUMTGGQUDE

PMMYAYYTFORCEEW

OSCOMPOUNDULDCP

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.

PulleyPULLEY
WedgeWEDGE
ScrewSCREW
Wheel and axleWHEEL AND AXLE
FulcrumFULCRUM
LoadLOAD
RampRAMP
GrooveGROOVE
PivotPIVOT
SeesawSEESAW
CrowbarCROWBAR
ScissorsSCISSORS
WorkWORK
ForceFORCE
AdvantageADVANTAGE
CompoundCOMPOUND

16 of 24 words from the Simple Machines Key Terms list.

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Answer key: Simple Machines Word Search

RWHEELANDAXLEHC

AUTPUYVQHDRASCO

MALDPIVOTTTWORK

PGADVANTAGEETGM

UECELISOIRPDERO

LNLATUCMNOLGSOT

LAEEAROTPFIEEOC

EAPDTACDFLGPEVT

YMEENSCISSORSEL

KLOSDGDUCSTJALS

WAIEHPUANTBFWOC

OEAEASWOCROWBAR

XFULCRUMTGGQUDE

PMMYAYYTFORCEEW

OSCOMPOUNDULDCP

PULLEY, WEDGE, SCREW, WHEEL AND AXLE, FULCRUM, LOAD, RAMP, GROOVE, PIVOT, SEESAW, CROWBAR, SCISSORS, WORK, FORCE, ADVANTAGE, COMPOUND

Next step Type in the tools from your own machines lesson Scramble the same machine words

All 114 words

The Six Machines and Their Parts 24

Arm The stretch of a lever between the fulcrum and the spot where a force acts.
Bar A long, stiff piece of metal or wood; a lever can be as simple as one.
Beam The rigid bar of a lever; on a balance it carries a pan at each end.
Crank A bent handle that turns the spool of a winch.
Effort The force a person applies to a machine.
Fulcrum The fixed point on which a lever turns.
Groove The channel around a pulley's edge that keeps the rope in place.
Hub The central part of a wheel, where it meets the axle.
Inclined plane A flat surface tilted so one end is higher, used to raise or lower a load.
Lever A rigid bar that turns on a fixed point to move a load.
Load The weight or resistance that a machine moves.
Pivot To turn on a fixed point, as a lever does on its fulcrum.
Point The sharp tip of a nail, a small wedge that enters the wood first.
Pulley A grooved disk on a shaft; a rope passing over it moves and changes direction.
Ramp Another name for an inclined plane.

Show all 114 words (99 more)

The Six Machines and Their Parts, continued

Rim The outer edge of a wheel.
Rope The line that runs over a pulley; a cable, belt or chain can do the same job.
Screw A shaft with a spiral ridge that turns rotation into motion in a straight line.
Shaft The rod at the center of a screw, with the ridge winding around it.
Sheave A grooved pulley disk, as elevator makers call it.
Spoke One of the rods that run from the center of a wheel out to its edge.
Thread The spiral ridge around the outside of a screw.
Wedge A triangular tool that turns a push on its blunt end into a sideways splitting force.
Wheel and axle A large disk fixed to a smaller rod so the two turn together and pass on force.

Levers by Class 21

Balance A scale with a beam on a central pivot and a pan on each arm.
Bellows A squeezed bag that blows air: a lever of the second kind.
Brake pedal The foot control that slows a car: a lever of the second kind.
Claw hammer Pulling out a nail with it uses a lever of the first kind.
Crowbar A metal bar with a curved end for forcing things apart: a lever of the first kind.
First class The kind of lever with the fulcrum between the effort and the load.
Fishing rod A long pole for casting a line: a lever of the third kind.
Hoe A long-handled garden tool: a lever of the third kind.
Mandible The lower jaw: a lever of the third kind in the human skull.
Multiplier A lever of the second kind is a force ___; one of the third kind is a speed ___.
Nail clipper A small cutter built as a compound lever, several levers acting in series.
Oar A pole with a flat blade for rowing; it pivots in an oarlock.
Piano key Pressing it works a compound lever inside the instrument.
Resistance Another word for the load a lever works against.
Scissors Two blades joined at one pivot: a pair of levers of the first kind.
Second class The kind of lever with the load between the effort and the fulcrum.
Seesaw A playground board on a pivot at its middle: a lever of the first kind.
Third class The kind of lever with the effort between the load and the fulcrum.
Tongs A gripping tool with two long arms: a lever of the third kind.
Wheelbarrow A cart with one wheel in front and two handles behind: a lever of the second kind.
Wrench A tool for turning nuts and bolts: a lever of the second kind.

Wedges and Screws 20

Auger A drilling tool with a helical blade winding around the end of its shaft.
Blade The sharp edge of a knife: a wedge that cuts with far less force than tearing.
Chisel A hand tool with a wedge-shaped cutting edge for carving wood, stone or metal.
Corkscrew A helix-shaped rod with a sharp tip, used to pull stoppers from bottles.
Cylinder The round shape that a screw's inclined plane is wrapped around.
Doorstop A wedge pushed under a door; friction holds it in place.
Drill bit Its two sharpened edges are wedges wound around a shaft; it cuts round holes.
Fork Its tips are wedges that split and separate what they are pushed into.
Hand axe A chipped stone tool, perhaps the first wedge people made.
Helix The spiral curve that a screw's ridge follows.
Jackscrew A jack worked by turning a threaded rod, used to lift heavy weights.
Maul A heavy tool for splitting wood, with a head much wider in angle than an axe.
Micrometer A measuring tool that uses a precisely made screw to measure lengths with great accuracy.
Nail A fastener whose tip is a wedge; friction on its shaft then holds it fast.
Nut A fastener with a threaded hole, used with a bolt.
Pitch The distance between a screw's threads; the smaller it is, the more the screw multiplies force.
Plane A woodworking tool that, like a chisel, is a wedge that separates wood.
Screw cap A bottle or jar closure that twists on and off along threads.
Vise A holding tool whose movable jaw is driven in and out by a screw.
Wood screw A fastener with a sharp V-shaped thread that cuts its own hole.

Ramps, Wheels and Pulleys 27

Axle The central shaft for a rotating wheel.
Barrel The cylinder of a windlass, which the rope winds around.
Belt A loop that passes over pulleys to carry power from one shaft to another.
Bicycle A compound machine: wheels, levers and pulleys all work in it.
Block A set of pulleys mounted together, each turning on its own.
Bucket The classic load of a well windlass, lifted full of water.
Cable A strong rope, often of wire, that runs over a pulley.
Causeway A raised road; ancient sloping ones are early inclined planes that survive.
Conveyor A moving belt for goods; a slanted one is a form of inclined plane.
Counterweight The weight that balances the car of an elevator.
Elevator A car pulled up by steel ropes over a grooved pulley, balanced by a counterweight.
Escalator A moving staircase, which is a form of inclined plane.
Fixed Describes a pulley mounted to a support; it changes the direction of the force.
Flagpole A tall pole with a pulley at the top, so a cord can raise the flag.
Flange The raised side that keeps a rope in a pulley's groove.
Funicular A cable railway that pulls its cars up a steep inclined plane.
Hoist A lifting device with a drum or wheel that rope or chain wraps around.
Loading ramp An inclined plane for moving goods on and off trucks, ships and planes.
Movable Describes a pulley that travels with the load.
Pyramid The Egyptian ones were built using inclined planes.
Ski slope A snowy inclined plane that people slide down for sport.
Wagon A wheeled vehicle, pictured on clay tablets more than 5,000 years ago.
Water slide A wet inclined plane that people ride down for fun.
Wheel A rotating part, usually circular, made to turn on an axle.
Winch A spool turned by a hand crank to wind a rope in or let it out.
Window blind A shade whose slats are gathered up by corded pulleys.
Zip line A pulley hung on a sloping cable; gravity carries the rider down.

How Machines Help 22

Advantage Mechanical ___: how many times a machine multiplies the force put into it.
Compound Describes a machine built from two or more simple machines.
Cut What the wedge of a knife does to food.
Fasten To hold objects together, as threaded screws do.
Force A push or a pull; a simple machine changes its direction or its size.
Hold What a doorstop does to a door.
Ideal Describes a machine imagined with no friction at all.
Input The force a person puts into a machine.
Leverage Another name for mechanical advantage.
Lower To let a load down safely, as an inclined plane can.
Mechanical Describes anything to do with machines.
Multiply What a simple machine does to a force, at the cost of distance.
Output The force a machine delivers to the load.
Pry To force two things apart with a lever.
Raise To move a load higher, the job of a ramp, a pulley or a jack.
Ratio A comparison of two numbers by division; mechanical advantage is one.
Renaissance The age whose scientists defined the six classical simple machines.
Simple Describes the six basic machines that bigger machines are built from.
Split What a wedge does to a log.
Tighten To turn a nut until it holds firm.
Turn The motion that drives a screw into wood.
Work In science, what a force does when it moves something over a distance.

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 2026-10-08 against English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), among them the articles on the simple machine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_machine), the lever (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever), the wedge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge), the screw (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_%28simple_machine%29), the inclined plane (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclined_plane), the wheel and axle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_and_axle) and the pulley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulley). Plain meanings were checked in Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/). Licence: own work

How it works

This simple machines word search names all six machines, Lever, Pulley, Wedge, Screw, Inclined plane and Wheel and axle, with their parts, such as Fulcrum, Load and Effort. Three more lists file everyday tools under the machine each one is.

Read the full guide

Levers sorted by class

Pick Levers by Class under Start from a list. Its 21 words include First class, Second class and Third class, with tools of each: Seesaw and Scissors for the first, Wheelbarrow and Wrench for the second, Tongs and Fishing rod for the third. Nail clipper and Piano key are compound levers.

Wedges, screws, ramps, wheels and pulleys

Wedges and Screws has 20 words, from Chisel, Nail and Doorstop to Vise, Auger and Corkscrew. Ramps, Wheels and Pulleys has 27, such as Escalator, Winch, Flagpole and Zip line. How Machines Help has 22, with Work, Force and Advantage. Easy Simple Machines keeps to 50 words of 3 to 5 letters.

Inclined plane and Wheel and axle each hide as one run of letters: WHEELANDAXLE.
Wheel and Axle are also listed as single words, in Ramps, Wheels and Pulleys.

Questions and answers

What are the 6 types of simple machines?

The lever, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge and the screw. Renaissance scientists defined these six. Each one changes the direction or the size of a force.

What is the difference between a first, second and third class lever?

In a first-class lever the fulcrum sits between the effort and the load, as in a seesaw. In a second-class lever the load is in the middle, as in a wheelbarrow. In a third-class lever the effort is in the middle, as in tongs.

Is a screw an inclined plane?

Geometrically, yes: a screw can be viewed as a thin inclined plane wound round a cylinder. A wedge can be seen as a moving inclined plane, or as two joined at the base.

Does the simple machines word search have an answer key?

Yes, as page 2 on Letter or A4. For friction, gravity and Newton's laws, print the force and motion word search.

All 114 words

The Six Machines and Their Parts 24

The Six Machines and Their Parts, continued

Levers by Class 21

Wedges and Screws 20

Ramps, Wheels and Pulleys 27

How Machines Help 22

How it works

Levers sorted by class

Wedges, screws, ramps, wheels and pulleys

Questions and answers

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