Free Printable Matter Crossword Puzzle

States of matter crossword puzzles, printable with an answer key: solids, liquids, gases, plasma and the changes between them.

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States of Matter Crossword

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Answer key: States of Matter Crossword

1FO2AMP3SWEATLRU4ATO5M6I7CESOYH8SLIDECOELL9LITERI10PUDDLE

Across 1 FOAM · 3 SWEAT · 4 ATOM · 6 ICE · 8 SLIDE · 9 LITER · 10 PUDDLE

Down 2 APART · 3 SLUSH · 5 MODEL · 7 CYCLE · 8 SOLID

Next step Go on to the chemistry crosswordFind states of matter words in a word search

All 121 clues

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Solids, Liquids and Gases 26

  • Air Mixture of gases that surrounds the Earth
  • Brittle Like an eggshell or uncooked spaghetti: it breaks before it bends
  • Compress Squeeze into less room, which is easy to do to gases
  • Contract Shrink, as most matter does when it is chilled
  • Crystal Piece of matter whose particles sit in a neat repeating pattern, like quartz
  • Definite Textbook word for fixed and unchanging, as the form of a brick is
  • Droplet One small round drop, like those strung along a spider web at dawn
  • Elastic Stretchy: able to snap back to its first form, like a rubber band
  • Expand Grow larger, as most matter does when it is warmed
  • Flow What a river does and a rock cannot: run along in a stream
  • Fluid Liquids and gases share this name, because both can run and take any form
  • Gas State of matter with no form of its own and no fixed size: it fills any room it is let into
  • Gel Wobbly, jelly-like material that is part runny and part firm
  • Liquid State of matter that can be poured: it keeps its amount but not its form
  • Mass How much matter an object holds; it stays the same on the Moon
  • Plasma Fourth state of matter, so hot that atoms are stripped into charged bits; stars are made of it
  • Pour Tip juice out of a jug in a steady stream
  • Powder Fine loose grains, like flour, that can be poured yet are not runny
  • Property Trait used to describe matter, such as color, hardness or smell
  • Rigid Not bendy at all: the opposite of floppy
  • Shape Solids keep their own; liquids borrow one from the cup
  • Solid The state of a nail, a coin or a brick: firm, with a form of its own
  • Texture How the outside of an object feels: rough, smooth or bumpy
  • Vapor Water ___: the invisible, gaseous form of water
  • Viscosity Thickness of something runny: ketchup has a lot, juice has little
  • Volume How much room matter takes up, often measured in liters

Changes of State 28

  • Boiling Rapid change into gases, with bubbles rising all through a pot of water
  • Bubble Ball of gases rising through a pot of water on the stove
  • Celsius Metric scale for hot and cold, with 100 degrees between frozen and bubbling water
  • Chill Make cold, as a refrigerator does
  • Condensation Change of gases back into drops, as on the outside of a cold glass
  • Cool Become less hot, as soup does when it sits on the table
  • Cycle Water ___: evaporating, condensing and falling as rain, over and over
  • Deposition Change straight from gases to solids, with no liquids in between
  • Dew Beads of water on the morning lawn, left by a night of condensing
  • Dry Free of water, like a shirt after a day on the clothesline
  • Evaporation Slow change into gases at the top of a pond, a wet towel or a spill
  • Fahrenheit Scale of United States weather reports: water turns hard at 32 and bubbles away at 212
  • Freezing Change of state that turns liquids into solids
  • Harden Become firm, as wet cement or cooling fudge does
  • Humidity How much invisible water the atmosphere around you is holding
  • Kelvin Scale with no minus numbers: its zero is the coldest that anything can be
  • Liquefy Turn runny, as solids do when they melt
  • Melting Change of state that turns solids into liquids
  • Molten Made runny by great warmth, as rock is deep inside a volcano
  • Physical Word for a change in form only, such as tearing paper or a change of state
  • Puddle Rain leaves it on the sidewalk; by a warm afternoon it has gone into the sky
  • Reversible Able to be undone, as a change of state is
  • Simmer Cook just below a full bubbling, with a few small bubbles rising
  • Soften Become less firm, as a stick of butter does on the counter
  • Solidify Turn hard, as melted wax does when it sets
  • Sublimation Change straight from solids to gases, skipping liquids altogether
  • Thaw Lose its frozen hardness, as a pond does in early spring
  • Vaporize Turn from something runny into gases

Particles and Energy 32

  • Apart Particles of gases sit far ___ from one another
  • Arrangement The way particles are placed: neat rows, loose clusters or far-flung
  • Atom Bit of matter so small that about a million would fit across a human hair
  • Attract Pull toward one another, as the particles of matter do
  • Balance Lab tool for finding how much matter is in an object
  • Bond What holds neighboring atoms to each other
  • Charge Electrical trait that can be positive or negative
  • Collide Bump into one another, as the particles of gases do all the time
  • Density How much matter sits in each bit of room: why a rock sinks and a cork floats
  • Diffusion Spreading of particles from where they are crowded to where they are few
  • Electron Tiny negatively charged bit of matter found in the outer part of atoms
  • Energy Particles gain it when matter is warmed up
  • Gram Small metric unit that a kitchen scale counts in
  • Heat It flows from a hot stove into a cold pan
  • Ion Electrically charged bit of matter; the fourth state is full of them
  • Kinetic Scientists' word for of or caused by movement
  • Liter Metric unit printed on big soda bottles
  • Model Drawing or idea that stands in for something too small to see
  • Molecule H2O is one: a tiny cluster of three atoms stuck together
  • Motion The particles of all matter are always in this
  • Packed Tightly ___: how the particles of solids sit
  • Particle One of the tiny bits that all matter is made of
  • Pressure Push of bouncing particles on the inside of a tire or balloon
  • Random In every direction and with no plan, like the zigzag paths inside a balloon
  • Slide Slip smoothly past; particles of liquids do it, which is why milk can be poured
  • Speed Miles per hour measures it; warming matter gives its particles more
  • Substance Gold, sugar or water, for example: matter of one single kind
  • Temperature What goes up on a hot day and down on a cold night, counted in degrees
  • Theory Big idea, backed by many tests, that explains why matter acts as it does
  • Thermometer Tool with a scale of degrees, read to see how hot a thing is
  • Vibrate Shake in place, as the particles of solids do
  • Weight The pull of gravity on an object, read from a bathroom scale

Everyday Examples 35

  • Aurora Curtains of colored light in polar skies, set glowing by charged particles from space
  • Candle Its wax melts near the flame and hardens as it drips
  • Cloud It floats overhead, made of water drops too tiny to fall as rain
  • Dry ice Frozen carbon dioxide, which smokes away without ever turning wet
  • Foam Froth: pockets of gases trapped in soapy water
  • Fog Tiny water drops hanging near the ground, hard to see through
  • Freezer Kitchen box cold enough to turn water hard
  • Frost Feathery white coat that grows on cold windows overnight without ever being wet
  • Glacier Frozen river that creeps downhill over many years
  • Hail Frozen lumps, some as big as golf balls, flung down by a thunderstorm
  • Helium It fills party balloons that float up to the ceiling
  • Honey Sweet, thick, slow-moving food made by bees
  • Ice Cubes of it clink in a glass of lemonade
  • Iceberg Floating frozen mountain with most of its bulk hidden under the sea
  • Ice cream Frozen dessert that drips down the cone on a hot day
  • Icicle Frozen spear that grows downward from a roof edge, drip by drip
  • Kettle Kitchen jug that whistles when its water is hot enough
  • Lava Red-hot runny rock on the slope of a volcano
  • Lightning Flash in a thunderstorm, a natural show of the fourth state of matter
  • Magma Melted rock that is still underground
  • Mercury The one metal that runs like water in an ordinary room
  • Mirror Bathroom glass that fogs up when shower moisture condenses on it
  • Neon It glows red-orange inside the glass tubes of shop signs
  • Nitrogen Most of every breath you take in: nearly four fifths of the atmosphere
  • Oil Runny kitchen fat that floats on water
  • Oxygen Fires need it to burn and animals to breathe: about a fifth of the atmosphere
  • Perfume Its scent drifts across a room as its particles spread out
  • Propane Grill fuel that is squeezed into its tank until it turns runny
  • Salt Kitchen crystals left behind when seawater dries up
  • Sand It runs through an hourglass, though every grain is hard rock
  • Slush Soggy winter mush, part frozen and part meltwater, that splashes under boots
  • Snow Six-sided frozen crystals that fall in winter
  • Steam What a pot of water turns into once it bubbles hard
  • Sun Our nearest star, a ball of matter in its fourth state
  • Sweat Skin moisture that cools you as it evaporates

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for grade 5 and middle school classes, in four sets: the states themselves, changes of state, particles and energy, and everyday examples. Definitions and facts, such as nitrogen making up about 78 percent of the atmosphere, were checked against English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA 4.0) in October 2026. Matter and State are not answers, so clues can use them. No clue was copied from a published puzzle. Licence: own work

How it works

This free printable matter crossword puzzle is a criss-cross grid on the states of matter. It opens on 12 short words such as Ice, Steam and Flow; four more clue sets cover the states, changes of state, particles and everyday examples.

Read the full guide

Four sets for one unit

Solids, Liquids and Gases holds the states themselves and the words that describe them, from Rigid to Viscosity. Changes of State runs from Melting and Freezing to Sublimation and Deposition. Particles and Energy explains why: Vibrate, Collide, Kinetic. Everyday Examples asks which state it is: Fog, Lava, Dry ice, Lightning.

For 5th grade and up

For a 5th grade matter crossword puzzle, start with Short Matter Words: no answer is longer than six letters. The four unit sets add middle school words such as Diffusion and Condensation. These bands are our judgement, not a published standard.

  • Print Everyday Examples after a demonstration with an ice cube and a kettle: the clues ask pupils to name what they just watched.

Questions and answers

Are these free printable states of matter crossword puzzles?

Yes. Printing is free, with no sign-up and no limit on copies. Each press of New puzzle draws a different grid from the same clue set, so neighbors need not get the same sheet.

Which states of matter are in the puzzle?

Solid, Liquid, Gas and Plasma are all answers. Plasma is clued as the fourth state, the one stars are made of, and Lightning and the Sun appear as examples of it.

Does the matter crossword come with an answer key?

Yes. The key prints last, on a sheet of its own. Show all clues and answers, under the puzzle, lists every clue with its answer.

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