Turtle Word Search Printable

Turtles, tortoises and terrapins, their shells, eggs and homes, on one sheet with its answer key.

Name Date

Turtle Word Search

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

0 of 16 words found

JYIFNROMOOGCHIY

INHXENCNSBRTAIV

UJCVBEHSHELLTLS

EDAHEBGEMAEOCTW

TERRAPINNKABHPI

QAANCHRFYBTJLSM

OTPBHFIPOAHNIPU

CFATORTOISEENOT

ELCRPGENMKRSGAU

AIEVHALDDMBNEWR

NPOIBKNESTAILNT

ZPHEEJSWBACEGGL

FECOZGESOGKIWAE

EREOYHKRVSYWMZP

ETGTNRBADCAHPOR

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.

TurtleTURTLE
ShellSHELL
CarapaceCARAPACE
HatchlingHATCHLING
TortoiseTORTOISE
LeatherbackLEATHERBACK
TerrapinTERRAPIN
FlipperFLIPPER
EggEGG
NestNEST
BeachBEACH
PondPOND
OceanOCEAN
BeakBEAK
SwimSWIM
BaskBASK

16 of 22 words from the Turtle Favorites list.

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Answer key: Turtle Word Search

JYIFNROMOOGCHIY

INHXENCNSBRTAIV

UJCVBEHSHELLTLS

EDAHEBGEMAEOCTW

TERRAPINNKABHPI

QAANCHRFYBTJLSM

OTPBHFIPOAHNIPU

CFATORTOISEENOT

ELCRPGENMKRSGAU

AIEVHALDDMBNEWR

NPOIBKNESTAILNT

ZPHEEJSWBACEGGL

FECOZGESOGKIWAE

EREOYHKRVSYWMZP

ETGTNRBADCAHPOR

TURTLE, SHELL, CARAPACE, HATCHLING, TORTOISE, LEATHERBACK, TERRAPIN, FLIPPER, EGG, NEST, BEACH, POND, OCEAN, BEAK, SWIM, BASK

Next step Meet lizards and snakes in the reptile word search Make a puzzle from your own reptile unit words

All 101 words

Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins 23

Aldabra A giant tortoise is named for this atoll in the Indian Ocean.
Archelon The largest turtle known, a sea turtle from the age of dinosaurs, up to 15 feet long.
Chelonian A formal name for any turtle, tortoise or terrapin.
Flatback A sea turtle of Australia whose shell has a lower dome than those of other sea turtles.
Galapagos The largest living tortoise comes from these Pacific islands, whose Spanish name means tortoise.
Gopher The tortoise named after this burrowing animal has flat front limbs for digging.
Green The sea turtle with this color name is named for its fat, not its shell; adults eat mostly seagrass.
Hawksbill A sea turtle of tropical reefs with a sharp, curving beak; it eats sponges.
Leatherback The largest living turtle; in place of a bony shell its back is covered with tough, flexible skin.
Loggerhead A sea turtle found around the world and named for its large head.
Mata mata A South American river turtle whose shell looks like a piece of bark and whose head looks like fallen leaves.
Painted The turtle with this name is the most widespread native turtle in North America.

Show all 101 words (89 more)

Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins, continued

Pig-nosed A freshwater turtle with this name has flippers like a sea turtle's.
Reptile A cold-blooded animal with scaly skin; lizards, snakes and crocodiles are others.
Ridley Either of the two smallest sea turtles; thousands of females come ashore together to nest.
Side-necked The name for turtles that tuck the head sideways under the edge of the shell.
Slider The red-eared kind, from the southern United States, is the most widely traded turtle in the world.
Snapper A short name for a large freshwater turtle known for its powerful jaws and its temper out of the water.
Softshell A turtle whose leathery upper shell has no horny plates.
Terrapin A small turtle of fresh or slightly salty water; the name comes from an Algonquian word.
Testudines The scientific name of the turtle order, from the Latin word for tortoise.
Tortoise A turtle that lives on land, with legs like columns and feet like an elephant's.
Turtle A reptile with a bony shell that grows mainly from its ribs.

A Turtle's Body 20

Beak Living turtles have no teeth; a horny one edges the jaws.
Carapace The domed upper part of the shell.
Dome The high rounded shell shape of land turtles, which seems to make them harder to crush.
Eardrum Turtles have no ear openings; this part is covered with scales.
Flipper The front limb of a sea turtle, moved like a bird's wing to push through the water.
Heart A turtle's has three chambers.
Hinge Box turtles have one on the underside of the shell, so they can close it tightly.
Keratin The material of a turtle's beak and shell plates, the same as in hair and fingernails.
Lungs All turtles breathe air with these and must come to the surface to refill them.
Neck Every turtle has eight bones in it, whether it is short or long.
Plastron The flatter lower half of the shell, the belly plate.
Ribs The bones that grow sideways into broad flat plates to form the upper shell.
Scute One of the horny plates that cover the shell; a turtle usually has 54.
Shell A turtle's is made of 50 to 60 bones and is joined to its backbone and ribs.
Skull A turtle's is one stiff, solid piece, with no side openings for muscles.
Snorkel Softshell turtles have long, soft nostrils shaped like this swimmer's breathing tube.
Tail It is short in most turtles; snapping turtles have longer ones.
Tears Sea turtles get rid of extra salt through the glands that make these, so on land they seem to cry.
Toes Most turtles have five on each foot; freshwater turtles have long ones with webbing.
Webbing Skin between the toes of freshwater turtles that gives them push in the water.

Eggs, Hatchlings and Turtle Life 23

Arribada A mass nesting, when thousands of ridley females come onto one beach at the same time.
Bask To lie in the sun to warm up, as small pond turtles do after crawling out of the water.
Beach Sea turtles return, seemingly to the same one, every few years to lay their eggs.
Burrow A hole dug for shelter; the desert tortoise spends most of its time in one.
Century A Galapagos tortoise can live for more than one in the wild.
Dive The leatherback can do this to depths of more than 1,200 meters (3,900 feet).
Dormant Resting and inactive; turtles can stay this way for months.
Egg Every turtle lays this on land, even the kinds that live at sea.
Hatchling A newly hatched turtle; it digs itself out of the nest and heads for plants or water.
Homing Finding the way back to the place of birth, as sea turtles do when they return to nest.
Jellyfish The main food of the leatherback.
Jonathan The name of a giant tortoise said to be the oldest living land animal; he hatched about 1832.
Lure Something that draws prey close; the alligator snapping turtle has one shaped like a worm on its tongue.
Magnetic Turtles seem to sense Earth's field of this kind and use it to find their way.
Migrate To travel far with the seasons; among reptiles, only sea turtles go long distances to lay eggs.
Mute Turtles were long thought to be this, but a study of 53 kinds found that every one makes sounds.
Nest A chamber the female digs for her eggs, shaped like a flask.
Sand Hawksbill tracks left in it are uneven, because the turtle crawls with one flipper after the other.
Slow The word for a desert tortoise on the move: it covers less than a third of a mile in an hour.
Sponges The main food of the hawksbill.
Swim Sea turtles can do this at 30 kilometers (19 miles) an hour.
Temperature In most turtles this, in the nest, decides whether an egg hatches as a male or a female.
Withdraw To pull the head and legs into the shell when danger is near.

Where Turtles Live 20

Amazon The basin of this river is one of the richest places in the world for freshwater turtles.
Asia Tortoises first appeared on this continent.
Atlantic Leatherbacks swim even in the cold waters of this ocean off Nova Scotia.
Australia The flatback is found only on the sandy beaches and in the shallow waters of this country's continental shelf.
Brackish A little salty; the diamondback terrapin lives in water like this.
Canada North American turtles barely range north of this country's southern border.
Desert Tortoises of this dry land store water in the bladder, up to a fifth of their body weight.
Florida The gopher tortoise is this state's official state tortoise.
Freshwater Water that is not salty; terrapins live mainly in it or in slightly salty tidal water.
Gulf Kemp's ridley, the rarest sea turtle, lives mainly around the one named for Mexico.
Hemisphere Living side-necked turtles are found only in the southern one.
Island Giant tortoises once lived on many in the western Indian Ocean.
Lagoon Adult green turtles usually live in shallow ones, feeding on seagrass.
Log A painted turtle basks for hours on one, or on a rock.
Marsh In American English, terrapins are called turtles of this wet land, of the pond or of the tide-water.
Mojave The desert tortoise is native to this desert and to the Sonoran.
Mud The painted turtle spends the winter in this at the bottom of ponds and lakes.
Ocean Sea turtles live in much of it, mainly where the water is tropical or subtropical.
Pond The painted turtle belongs to the family of turtles named for this small body of still water.
Reef The hawksbill uses its sturdy shell to squeeze into tight spaces in a coral one.

Turtles and People 15

Bycatch Sea animals caught by accident in fishing gear; sea turtles are often killed this way.
Darwin The naturalist whose notes on Galapagos tortoises in 1835 helped shape his theory of evolution.
Extinct Gone forever; by 1840 almost every giant tortoise of the Indian Ocean islands seemed to be this.
Habitat The natural home of an animal; turtles around the world are losing theirs.
Hatchery A protected place set up for turtle eggs where nests are in danger.
Invasive Spreading where it does not belong; released pet sliders have become this in many places.
Keystone The word for a species many others depend on; gopher tortoise burrows shelter at least 360 other kinds of animal.
Myth Turtles appear in this kind of old story around the world.
Pet Some land and freshwater turtles are widely kept as one.
Poaching The illegal taking of wild animals or their eggs.
Pollution Too much light at night is one kind of this that threatens turtles.
Protected All six kinds of sea turtle found in United States waters are this under the Endangered Species Act.
Seven The number of sea turtle species alive today.
Six The number of sea turtle species found in United States waters.
Threatened More than half of all turtle species are considered this.

How this list was compiled: 101 turtle words in five lists, from kinds of turtle to turtles and people. Facts in the clues were checked on October 16, 2026 against English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/, CC BY-SA 4.0), chiefly its Turtle article, and the NOAA Fisheries page Sea Turtles; spellings against English Wiktionary. This site is not affiliated with either. Licence: own work

How it works

This turtle word search printable opens on 16 words, with Shell, Carapace, Hatchling, Tortoise, Leatherback, Terrapin and Flipper among them. In all, 101 turtle words fill five lists.

Read the full guide

Sea turtles, tortoises and the two halves of a shell

Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins has 23 words, with all seven sea turtles (the two ridleys share the word Ridley) and giants such as Galapagos and Aldabra. A Turtle's Body has 20, from Carapace and Plastron, the top and bottom of the shell, to Scute and Keratin.

Nests, homes and turtles in danger

Eggs, Hatchlings and Turtle Life has 23 words, among them Nest, Arribada, a mass nesting, and Magnetic, for the sense that helps turtles find their way. Where Turtles Live has 20, from Pond and Marsh to Amazon. Turtles and People has 15 for a conservation lesson, such as Bycatch, Hatchery and Threatened.

Easy Turtle has 36 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Shell, Egg, Nest, Pond and Beak.
A clue to guess before searching, Neck: "Every turtle has eight bones in it, whether it is short or long."

Questions and answers

What is the difference between a turtle and a tortoise?

A tortoise is a turtle that lives on land, with legs like columns and short toes. Sea turtles have flippers, and freshwater turtles have longer toes with webbing. In Britain, turtle is the word for a sea turtle and terrapin for a freshwater one.

Can a turtle come out of its shell?

No. The shell is part of the skeleton: it is made of 50 to 60 bones, and its upper part is joined to the backbone and the ribs.

How long do turtles live?

Many live for decades. Most kinds of tortoise can live 80 to 150 years, and a giant tortoise named Jonathan, hatched about 1832, is said to be the oldest living land animal.

How many kinds of sea turtles are there?

Seven: the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, Kemp's ridley and olive ridley. Six of them are found in United States waters, where all six are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

All 101 words

Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins 23

Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins, continued

A Turtle's Body 20

Eggs, Hatchlings and Turtle Life 23

Where Turtles Live 20

Turtles and People 15

How it works

Sea turtles, tortoises and the two halves of a shell

Nests, homes and turtles in danger

Questions and answers

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