Skeletal System Word Search

Print 16 skeletal system words with an answer key, or swap in the skull, spine, arm or leg bones.

Name Date

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

0 of 16 words found

VNPTSLRTFWFYYTC

AHHWGFIBONYDYLA

MMANDIBLEILQHNR

XELRSODTRSNFIDP

SCAPULAIAMEULNA

IPNPUOWELMNJMNL

IAGLDAUDTARSALS

RTESYYHVERTEBRA

AESNNFEMURRHXSH

ILEDNITOSOAUGTF

ELJODBHTIWDRAEP

HAOCFUEIFCISVRD

GUIDPLSBAOUVPNO

ARNXTAWINVSDNUT

UMTTALUAMCEERMY

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.

MandibleMANDIBLE
VertebraVERTEBRA
RibRIB
SternumSTERNUM
ScapulaSCAPULA
RadiusRADIUS
UlnaULNA
CarpalsCARPALS
PhalangesPHALANGES
FemurFEMUR
PatellaPATELLA
TibiaTIBIA
FibulaFIBULA
TarsalsTARSALS
JointJOINT
MarrowMARROW

16 of 24 words from the Skeletal System Key Terms list.

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Word list

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Answer key: Skeletal System Word Search

VNPTSLRTFWFYYTC

AHHWGFIBONYDYLA

MMANDIBLEILQHNR

XELRSODTRSNFIDP

SCAPULAIAMEULNA

IPNPUOWELMNJMNL

IAGLDAUDTARSALS

RTESYYHVERTEBRA

AESNNFEMURRHXSH

ILEDNITOSOAUGTF

ELJODBHTIWDRAEP

HAOCFUEIFCISVRD

GUIDPLSBAOUVPNO

ARNXTAWINVSDNUT

UMTTALUAMCEERMY

MANDIBLE, VERTEBRA, RIB, STERNUM, SCAPULA, RADIUS, ULNA, CARPALS, PHALANGES, FEMUR, PATELLA, TIBIA, FIBULA, TARSALS, JOINT, MARROW

Next step Type in the bones from your own diagram Scramble the same bone names

All 109 words

Skull and Face Bones 24

Cheekbone The everyday name for the zygomatic bone.
Cranium Another name for the skull; its upper back part is a protective case for the brain.
Ethmoid A light, cube-shaped bone at the roof of the nose, between the two eye sockets.
Fontanelle A soft gap between the skull bones of a baby.
Frontal The bone of the forehead; it also forms part of each eye socket.
Hyoid A horseshoe-shaped bone in the front of the neck, not joined to any other bone.
Incus The anvil: the middle one of the three tiny bones of the ear.
Jawbone The everyday name for the mandible.
Lacrimal One of two small, fragile bones in the inner wall of the eye socket.
Malleus The hammer: a tiny bone of the middle ear, attached to the eardrum.
Mandible The lower jaw: the only bone of the skull that moves.
Maxilla The fixed upper jaw; in humans it includes the front of the hard palate.
Nasal One of the two small bones that form the bridge of the nose.
Occipital The main bone of the back and lower part of the skull.
Orbit The socket in the skull that holds the eye.

Show all 109 words (94 more)

Skull and Face Bones, continued

Ossicles The three small bones of the middle ear.
Palatine One of two bones that, with the maxilla, make up the hard palate.
Parietal One of the two bones that form the sides and roof of the braincase.
Skull The bony case around the brain, together with the bones of the face.
Sphenoid An unpaired bone in the middle of the skull, toward the front.
Stapes The stirrup: the tiny ear bone that passes sound on to the inner ear.
Temporal One of the pair of bones at the sides and base of the skull, under the temples.
Vomer An unpaired bone of the face; its name is Latin for a plowshare.
Zygomatic The formal name of the cheekbone, a paired bone at the upper side of the face.

Spine and Rib Cage 18

Atlas The first vertebra of the neck, which supports the head.
Axis The second vertebra of the neck, just below the atlas.
Backbone An everyday name for the spinal column.
Breastbone The everyday name for the sternum.
Cervical Describes the vertebrae of the neck, just below the skull.
Coccyx The final segment of the spine.
Costal Having to do with the ribs, like the bars of cartilage that extend them forward.
Disc A pad of fibrous cartilage that lies between two neighboring vertebrae.
Lumbar Describes the vertebrae of the lower back; humans typically have five.
Manubrium The first of the three regions of the sternum.
Rib One of the long curved bones that form a cage around the chest.
Sacrum A triangular bone at the base of the spine, made of vertebrae that fuse together.
Spinal column The segmented stack of vertebrae that is the core of the axial skeleton.
Sternum The long flat bone in the center of the chest; the ribs join it through cartilage.
Tailbone The common name for the coccyx.
Thoracic Describes the twelve vertebrae of the middle back, which lie between the other two groups.
Vertebra One of the irregular bones that stack up to make the spine.
Xiphoid The name of the small process at the lower end of the sternum; its word means swordlike.

Arm and Hand Bones 19

Acromion A bony process on the shoulder blade, at the summit of the shoulder.
Capitate The bone in the center of the wrist; it meets the palm bone of the middle finger.
Clavicle A slender, S-shaped bone that works as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum.
Collarbone The everyday name for the clavicle.
Hamate A wedge-shaped wrist bone with a hook-like process.
Humerus The long bone of the upper arm, from the shoulder to the elbow.
Lunate A wrist bone with a crescent outline, in the center of the row nearest the forearm.
Metacarpals The palm bones, between the wrist bones and the fingers.
Olecranon The thick, curved end of the ulna that forms the point of the elbow.
Phalanges The bones of the fingers and toes: two in each thumb and big toe, three in the rest.
Pisiform A small, knobbly, pea-shaped bone in the wrist.
Radius The forearm bone that runs from the elbow to the thumb side of the wrist.
Scaphoid A wrist bone on the thumb side, the largest of the row nearest the forearm.
Scapula The bone that connects the humerus with the clavicle.
Shoulder blade The everyday name for the scapula.
Trapezium One of the eight wrist bones, on the thumb side; also called the greater multangular.
Trapezoid The smallest bone in the row of wrist bones nearest the palm; it is wedge-shaped.
Triquetrum A wrist bone on the little-finger side, between the lunate and the pisiform.
Ulna The forearm bone on the little-finger side; it is longer than the radius.

Hip, Leg and Foot Bones 20

Acetabulum The cup in the pelvis that the head of the femur fits into, forming the hip joint.
Calcaneus The bone that forms the heel.
Cuboid One of the seven tarsal bones, in the midfoot.
Cuneiform Describes three wedge-shaped bones of the midfoot.
Femur The only bone in the thigh, between the hip and the knee.
Fibula The smaller, more slender bone of the lower leg, on the outer side of the tibia.
Heel bone The everyday name for the calcaneus.
Hip bone A large flat bone made of three parts: the ilium, the ischium and the pubis.
Ilium The uppermost and largest part of the hip bone.
Ischium The lower, back part of the hip bone.
Kneecap The everyday name for the patella.
Metatarsals The five long bones of the midfoot, between the ankle bones and the toes.
Navicular A small bone of the midfoot; the three cuneiforms lie in front of it.
Patella A flat, rounded-triangle bone that covers and protects the front of the knee joint.
Pelvis The ring of bone at the base of the trunk, formed by the two hip bones, sacrum and coccyx.
Pubis The lower, front part of the hip bone.
Shinbone The everyday name for the tibia.
Talus The ankle bone; it passes the body's weight from the lower leg to the foot.
Thighbone The everyday name for the femur.
Tibia The larger and stronger of the two bones of the leg below the knee.

Joints and Bone Tissue 26

Appendicular Describes the part of the skeleton that supports the limbs.
Axial Describes the part of the skeleton made of the skull, spinal column and rib cage.
Calcium A mineral that bones keep in reserve for the body.
Cartilage Smooth, springy tissue that covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints.
Collagen The main structural protein in the body's connective tissues.
Compact Describes the dense bone that makes up most of the shaft of a long bone.
Diaphysis The shaft, or long midsection, of a long bone.
Epiphysis One of the rounded ends of a long bone.
Growth plate The plate of cartilage near each end of a long bone where new bone growth takes place.
Hinge The kind of joint that allows motion in one plane only.
Joint The connection between two bones.
Ligament A band of fibrous tissue that connects one bone to another.
Marrow The soft tissue inside bones where new blood cells are made.
Ossification The process of laying down new bone material.
Osteoblast A cell that makes new bone.
Osteoclast A cell that removes bone tissue.
Osteocyte The most common cell in mature bone.
Periosteum The membrane that covers the outer surface of bones.
Pivot The kind of joint that allows a bone to turn about its long axis.
Saddle The kind of joint, found in the thumb, whose two surfaces each curve both ways.
Sesamoid Describes a bone embedded within a tendon or a muscle.
Skeleton The body's inner frame; a human has about 270 bones at birth and about 206 as an adult.
Socket The cup-like hollow that the ball-shaped end of another bone fits into.
Spongy Describes the lighter bone found at the ends of long bones; marrow sits within it.
Suture A fixed joint between two bones of the skull.
Synovial Describes the kind of joint that is wrapped in a capsule, such as a hinge or a pivot.

Skeletal System Key Terms 2

Carpals The eight small bones that make up the wrist.
Tarsals The seven bones in each foot between the lower leg and the long bones of the midfoot.

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 human skeleton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skeleton), the list of bones of the human skeleton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bones_of_the_human_skeleton), the skull (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull), bone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone) and the joint (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint). A vocabulary list for class, not medical advice. Licence: own work

How it works

This skeletal system word search is bone names from top to bottom: the skull and face, the spine and rib cage, the arm and hand, the hip, leg and foot, then joints and what bone is made of.

Read the full guide

A human skeleton word search, region by region

Pick a list under Start from a list. Skull and Face Bones has 24 words, from Frontal and Parietal to the three ear bones, Malleus, Incus and Stapes. Arm and Hand Bones has 19, with all eight wrist bones by name. Hip, Leg and Foot Bones has 21 and Spine and Rib Cage 18, Atlas and Axis among them.

A skeletal system word search printable with everyday names

Eleven parts appear under both of their names, so one sheet can pair Clavicle with Collarbone, Patella with Kneecap and Calcaneus with Heel bone. Joints and Bone Tissue has 26 words, such as Hinge, Suture, Marrow, Osteoblast and Growth plate.

Carpals reads inside Metacarpals and Tarsals inside Metatarsals, so the two short group names are key terms only.
Shoulder blade, Spinal column, Hip bone, Heel bone and Growth plate each hide as one run of letters: HEELBONE.

Questions and answers

How many bones are in the human skeleton?

Around 206 in an adult. A baby is born with around 270, and the total falls as some bones fuse together. The skeleton reaches its greatest mass somewhere from age 25 to age 30.

What is the largest bone in the human body, and the smallest?

The femur, or thigh bone, is the largest and thickest. The stapes, the stirrup-shaped bone of the middle ear, is the smallest and lightest.

What are the two parts of the skeleton?

The axial skeleton is the skull, the spinal column, the rib cage and associated bones. The appendicular skeleton, attached to it, is the shoulder and pelvic girdles together with the bones of the arms and legs.

Does the skeletal system word search come with an answer key?

Yes, as the next page, on Letter or A4. For a harder sheet, tick Show clues, not words, and Hyoid prints as "A horseshoe-shaped bone in the front of the neck, not joined to any other bone."

All 109 words

Skull and Face Bones 24

Skull and Face Bones, continued

Spine and Rib Cage 18

Arm and Hand Bones 19

Hip, Leg and Foot Bones 20

Joints and Bone Tissue 26

Skeletal System Key Terms 2

How it works

A human skeleton word search, region by region

A skeletal system word search printable with everyday names

Questions and answers

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