States of Matter and Phase Changes Word Search Puzzle With a Key

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States of Matter Word Search

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

0 of 16 words found

SVTESUBLIMATION

QSPHITOCTANNRHH

LDENSITYRSTDXRB

UNRIDPRESSUREVO

NLWNAATOOZMANPI

CTUZMRHSLTEEELL

UDNLATPOISLWRAI

LNDITIHXDRTIGSN

THEATCATTOIEYMG

CDFLELSAAGNZVAH

WPSFREEZINGFOFT

SWVBFAACOTBLLWI

CHSAJHIOYTNAUIE

IIMFDLIQUIDOMGR

NRHOHTDATHTNEFT

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.

SolidSOLID
LiquidLIQUID
PlasmaPLASMA
MatterMATTER
VolumeVOLUME
MassMASS
MeltingMELTING
FreezingFREEZING
BoilingBOILING
SublimationSUBLIMATION
PhasePHASE
HeatHEAT
EnergyENERGY
ParticlePARTICLE
PressurePRESSURE
DensityDENSITY

16 of 24 words from the States of Matter Key Terms list.

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Answer key: States of Matter Word Search

SVTESUBLIMATION

QSPHITOCTANNRHH

LDENSITYRSTDXRB

UNRIDPRESSUREVO

NLWNAATOOZMANPI

CTUZMRHSLTEEELL

UDNLATPOISLWRAI

LNDITIHXDRTIGSN

THEATCATTOIEYMG

CDFLELSAAGNZVAH

WPSFREEZINGFOFT

SWVBFAACOTBLLWI

CHSAJHIOYTNAUIE

IIMFDLIQUIDOMGR

NRHOHTDATHTNEFT

SOLID, LIQUID, PLASMA, MATTER, VOLUME, MASS, MELTING, FREEZING, BOILING, SUBLIMATION, PHASE, HEAT, ENERGY, PARTICLE, PRESSURE, DENSITY

Next step Build a puzzle from your own textbook's terms Scramble the same states of matter words

All 132 words

Solids, Liquids and Gases 22

Amorphous Describes a solid with no regular pattern inside. Glass is the best-known example.
Compress To squeeze into a smaller space. It works well on gases and hardly at all on liquids.
Condensate Short name for a fifth state, made by chilling a gas to near absolute zero. First made in 1995.
Container A jar, cup or tank. A liquid takes the shape of the one it is in.
Crystal A solid whose particles sit in a neat repeating pattern, like table salt, a diamond or a snowflake.
Expand To spread out and take up more room, as air does when it warms.
Flow To move along in a stream, as liquids and gases can.
Fluid Any substance that can flow. Liquids and gases both count.
Gas The state with no shape or volume of its own. It spreads out to fill any container.
Lattice The regular three-dimensional grid of particles inside a crystal.
Liquid The state that flows and takes the shape of its container while its volume stays the same.
Mass How much matter an object holds, in grams or kilograms. It stays the same when ice melts.

Show all 132 words (120 more)

Solids, Liquids and Gases, continued

Matter The stuff everything is made of: whatever has mass and fills some space.
Plasma The fourth state, made of charged particles. Stars, lightning and neon signs all contain it.
Pour To tip a liquid from one container into another.
Rigid Stiff and hard to bend, like most solids.
Shape A solid keeps its own. A liquid borrows one from its container.
Snowflake A six-sided ice crystal that grows in a cloud as water in the air freezes onto it.
Solid The state that keeps its own shape and volume. Its particles can only vibrate in place.
Substance Any one kind of matter, such as water, iron or oxygen.
Surface The top of a liquid. Evaporation happens here, while boiling happens all through the liquid.
Volume The amount of space something takes up, measured in liters or cubic centimeters.

Phase Changes 23

Boiling The fast change from liquid to gas, with bubbles of vapor rising through the liquid.
Bubble A pocket of gas inside a liquid. In boiling water it holds water vapor, not air.
Condensation The change from gas to liquid. It puts water drops on the outside of a cold glass.
Cooling curve A line graph of temperature against time as a substance changes from gas or liquid to solid.
Deposition The change from gas straight to solid. It is how frost forms on a cold window.
Dry ice Solid carbon dioxide. At minus 78.5 degrees Celsius it turns straight into gas.
Evaporation The slow change from liquid to gas at the surface. It is how a puddle dries up.
Freezing The change from liquid to solid. For pure water it happens at 0 degrees Celsius.
Ionization The change from gas to plasma, when atoms lose electrons and become charged.
Latent heat Energy taken in or given out during a change of state while the temperature stays the same.
Liquefy To become runny and able to pour. Many gases do it when they are cooled far enough.
Melting The change from solid to liquid, as when an ice cube warms in your hand.
Meltwater What runs off snow and ice as they warm, such as the streams that flow from a glacier.
Phase Another word for a state of matter. Solid, liquid and gas are the three best known.
Physical The kind of change that alters the form of a substance but not what it is made of.
Plateau The flat stretch on a temperature graph where a substance is melting or boiling.
Reversible Describes a change that can be undone. Melted ice can be frozen again.
Solidify To set hard from a runny state, as lava does when it cools into rock.
Sublimation The change from solid straight to gas, with no liquid stage. Dry ice does it.
Thaw To warm something frozen until it is soft or liquid again.
Triple point The one temperature and pressure where the solid, liquid and gas of a substance exist together.
Vaporization The change from liquid to gas. It has two kinds: one slow at the surface, one fast with bubbles.
Water vapor The gas state of the liquid in rivers and seas. It is invisible and always present in the air.

Heat and Temperature 22

Absolute zero The lowest possible temperature: 0 kelvin, or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius.
Absorb To take in. A melting solid does this with heat from its surroundings.
Altitude Height above sea level. The higher the kitchen, the lower the temperature at which water boils.
Antifreeze A liquid added to the water in a car engine so that it stays liquid on icy days.
Boiling point The temperature at which a liquid turns to gas all through. For water it is 100 degrees Celsius.
Celsius The scale on which pure water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 100 degrees at sea level.
Conductor A material that lets heat pass through easily, as most metals do.
Contraction Shrinking in size as a material cools.
Cool To lower the temperature. Do it to water vapor and drops of water form.
Energy What particles gain when a substance warms up and lose when it cools down.
Expansion Growth in size as a material warms. Bridges have gaps in their joints to allow for it.
Fahrenheit The scale on which pure water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees at sea level.
Heat Energy that moves from a warmer object to a cooler one.
Insulator A material that slows the flow of heat, such as wool or foam. It keeps a cold drink cold.
Kelvin The temperature scale whose zero is the coldest possible point. Water freezes at 273.15 on it.
Kinetic The kind of energy a particle has because it is moving.
Melting point The temperature at which a solid turns to liquid. For ice it is 0 degrees Celsius.
Release To give out. A freezing liquid does this with heat.
Temperature A measure of how hot or cold something is. It reflects how fast the particles are moving.
Thermal The adjective for anything to do with heat.
Thermometer The tool that measures how hot or cold something is.
Warm To raise the temperature of something a little.

Particles in Motion 18

Arrangement How particles are laid out: in neat rows in a crystal, jumbled in a liquid.
Atom The basic building block of every element, far too small to see.
Attraction The pull between particles. It is strong in a solid and very weak in a gas.
Bond A link that holds atoms or particles together.
Boyle He published a gas law in 1662: squeeze a gas into half the volume and its pressure doubles.
Brownian The name for the jittery motion of tiny specks in a fluid, first described by a botanist in 1827.
Charles His gas law, from work in the 1780s, says that a gas expands as it is warmed.
Collide To bump into something. Gas particles do it to each other and to the container walls.
Diffusion The spreading of particles from a crowded place to an emptier one, like a smell crossing a room.
Electron A tiny negative particle inside an atom. In a plasma, many of them have been knocked free.
Molecule Two or more atoms joined together. One of water has one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms.
Motion Movement. Particles are always in it, even inside a block of ice.
Particle A tiny piece of matter, such as an atom or a molecule.
Pressure The push of a gas on the walls of its container, made by particles hitting them.
Random With no pattern or set direction, like the paths of gas particles.
Slide What the particles of a liquid do past one another, which is why a liquid can flow.
Speed How fast something moves. Particles gain it as a substance warms up.
Vibrate To shake back and forth on the spot, which is all the particles in a solid can do.

Properties of Matter 20

Brittle Likely to snap or shatter instead of bending, like glass.
Buoyancy The upward push of a fluid on an object placed in it.
Density How much mass is packed into a given volume. Ice has less of it than water, so ice floats.
Dissolve To mix into a liquid so completely that the solid seems to vanish.
Ductile Able to be drawn out into a thin wire, like copper.
Elastic Able to spring back to its first shape after being stretched or squeezed.
Float To rest on top of a liquid, as objects less dense than the liquid do.
Gram A metric unit of mass, first defined as the mass of one cubic centimeter of water.
Hardness How well a solid resists being scratched or dented.
Liter A metric measure of volume, the same as 1,000 cubic centimeters.
Malleable Able to be hammered or rolled into a new shape without breaking. Gold is the best at it.
Mixture Two or more substances combined without being chemically joined.
Property A feature of a substance that you can observe or measure, such as color or hardness.
Sink To drop to the bottom of a liquid, as objects denser than the liquid do.
Soluble Able to dissolve in a liquid, as sugar is in water.
Solution An even mixture made when one substance dissolves in another, such as salt water.
Surface tension The skin-like pull on top of a liquid that lets water striders stand on a pond.
Texture How a surface feels: rough, smooth, gritty or soft.
Viscosity How strongly a liquid resists flowing. Syrup has more of it than water.
Weight The pull of gravity on an object. On the Moon it drops to one sixth, but mass does not change.

Matter Around Us 27

Air The mixture of gases around Earth, mostly nitrogen and oxygen.
Balloon A rubber bag that shows a gas filling its container. It shrinks when the air inside is chilled.
Cloud Countless tiny droplets or ice crystals hanging in the air, formed by condensation.
Dew Water drops that condense on grass and other cool surfaces in the evening or early morning.
Fog A cloud at ground level, made of tiny droplets that condensed from the air.
Frost Ice crystals that form on cold surfaces when water in the air turns straight to solid.
Gallium A metal that melts in your hand: its melting point is just under 30 degrees Celsius.
Glacier A huge body of ice that creeps slowly over land, built from snow packed down over many years.
Helium A gas lighter than air. It has the lowest boiling point of any element, about minus 269 Celsius.
Ice Water in its solid state. It floats because it has a lower density than liquid water.
Icicle A hanging spike made when dripping water freezes.
Lava Melted rock that flows from a volcano and hardens as it cools.
Lightning A giant spark in a storm. For an instant it turns the air along its path into plasma.
Magma Melted rock while it is still under the ground.
Mercury The only metal that is liquid at room temperature.
Neon A gas that glows reddish orange when electricity turns it to plasma inside a sign tube.
Nitrogen The gas that makes up about 78 percent of air. As a liquid it boils at minus 196 degrees Celsius.
Oxygen A gas in the air that we breathe. Cooled to minus 183 degrees Celsius, it becomes a liquid.
Puddle A small pool of rain that shrinks on a sunny day as it evaporates.
Salt Spread on icy roads because it lowers the temperature at which water freezes.
Snow Ice crystals that grow in clouds and fall as flakes.
Steam Water as a gas. It is invisible: the white cloud over a pan is tiny droplets.
Syrup A thick, sweet liquid that pours slowly because its viscosity is high.
Tungsten The metal with the highest melting point, 3,422 degrees Celsius.
Vapor The gas form of something that is usually a liquid, such as the water in the air.
Water It is ice, a drink and steam: the one common substance met in all three states in daily life.
Wax The solid fuel of a candle. It melts near the flame and hardens again as it drips.

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 2026-09-19 against Wikipedia, among them the articles on states of matter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_matter), phase changes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_transition) and temperature (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature). Some clues were reworded on 2026-09-20, and any fact that changed was checked against Wikipedia the same day. Licence: own work

How it works

This states of matter and phase changes word search puzzle opens on 16 of 24 key terms, Sublimation and Plasma among them. Eight more lists, from Phase Changes to Matter Around Us, bring the total to 132 words.

Read the full guide

Six lists in the order you teach the unit

Under the puzzle, the Start from a list row follows the unit: Solids, Liquids and Gases (22 words), Phase Changes (23), Heat and Temperature (22), Particles in Motion (18), Properties of Matter (20) and Matter Around Us (27), which runs from Ice and Steam to Gallium. Easy States of Matter holds 38 words of 3 to 5 letters. For Hard States of Matter, 35 words of 9 to 14 letters, press Hard; the grid grows when a word needs room.

States of matter word search PDF

Press Print or save as PDF and choose Save as PDF in the print window. The file has 2 pages sized for Letter or A4: the puzzle, then its answer key.

Nine entries are two words, Dry ice and Melting point among them. Each hides as one run of letters: DRYICE.
Condensation needs 12 squares, so keep the key terms on a grid of 12 by 12 or more.

Questions and answers

Which phase changes are in the states of matter word find?

All six between solid, liquid and gas: Melting, Freezing, Vaporization, Condensation, Sublimation and Deposition. Boiling and Evaporation are there as the two kinds of vaporization, and Ionization takes gas to plasma.

Is plasma a state of matter?

Yes, the fourth: a gas of charged particles, found in stars, lightning and neon signs. Plasma is a key term here. Condensate, short for a fifth state first made in 1995, is in Solids, Liquids and Gases.

What temperatures do the clues mention?

Dry ice turns straight to gas at minus 78.5 degrees Celsius, liquid nitrogen boils at minus 196, and gallium melts just under 30, which a warm hand can manage. Tick Show clues, not words, in More options to print them.

All 132 words

Solids, Liquids and Gases 22

Solids, Liquids and Gases, continued

Phase Changes 23

Heat and Temperature 22

Particles in Motion 18

Properties of Matter 20

Matter Around Us 27

How it works

Six lists in the order you teach the unit

States of matter word search PDF

Questions and answers

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