Urinary System Crossword Puzzle

Print a criss-cross urinary system crossword of the kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra, with one set on the nephron.

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Urinary System Crossword

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Answer key: Urinary System Crossword

1FISTI2N3BLADDER4HTP5ROEHIL6URETHRABLRO7STORE8KIDN9EYWTX10YELLOWPRAND

Across 1 FIST · 3 BLADDER · 6 URETHRA · 7 STORE · 8 KIDNEY · 10 YELLOW

Down 1 FILTER · 2 NEPHRON · 4 HOLLOW · 5 RIBS · 6 URETER · 9 EXPAND

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Kidneys to Urethra 23

  • Abdomen Belly region; the kidneys lie high inside it
  • Adrenal ___ gland: hormone maker found just above each of the kidneys
  • Drain Carry water away, as a sink pipe does; this set of organs does it for the body
  • Excretory ___ system: another name for the urinary system, because it rids the body of wastes
  • Exit Way out; the last tube of this system is the one for urine
  • Fascia Renal ___: the sheet of connective tissue that holds each of the kidneys in place
  • Fat Thick padding around each of the kidneys that helps protect it
  • Fist Balled-up hand; each of the kidneys is about as big
  • Kidney Organ shaped like a bean that turns wastes and spare water into urine
  • Liver Large organ that pushes the bean-shaped organ on the right slightly downward
  • Lower Word for the half of the urinary system where urine is stored and then let out
  • Mucus Slippery coating made by the inner lining of the narrow tubes
  • Order For urine to pass normally, every part must work in the correct ___
  • Pair A matched set, which is how the kidneys come
  • Peristalsis Rhythmic tightening and loosening of muscle that pushes urine down the narrow tubes
  • Ribs Curved parts of the chest cage; the ones at the bottom guard the kidneys
  • Smooth Kind of muscle, not under your command, that makes up the walls of the narrow tubes
  • Spine Backbone; the kidneys sit one on each side of it
  • Tract Urinary ___: the organs that make urine and carry it out of the body
  • Two Number of kidneys, and of the narrow tubes that lead down from them
  • Upper Word for the half of the urinary system made up of the kidneys and the tubes just below them
  • Ureter Narrow tube of muscle that carries urine down toward storage
  • Urethra Last tube of the system, the one that lets urine leave the body

Inside the Kidney 23

  • Artery Renal ___: the large tube that brings blood in to be cleaned
  • Basin Wash bowl: what the Latin word pelvis means
  • Branch Divide again and again, as the incoming blood tube does
  • Brown Reddish-___: the color of the kidneys
  • Calyx Cup-like chamber that catches urine from one pointed tip
  • Capsule Fibrous coat that closely wraps each of the kidneys
  • Center Middle; urine gathers in this part of the organ before it leaves
  • Column Renal ___: strip of the outer region that dips down between neighboring cone-shaped sections
  • Cortex Outer, reddish region just under the fibrous coat
  • Funnel Wide-topped kitchen tool; the renal pelvis is shaped like one
  • Hilum Notch in the curve of the bean, where the urine tube and blood vessels pass
  • Lobe Renal ___: one cone-shaped section together with the outer tissue just above it
  • Major Word for the bigger chambers that pour urine into the renal pelvis
  • Medulla Inner region, deeper in color than the outer one and made up of cone-shaped sections
  • Million About this many tiny cleaning units are packed into each of the kidneys
  • Minor Word for the small first chambers; several of them join into a bigger one
  • Papilla Pointed tip of a cone-shaped section, where finished urine drips out
  • Pyramid Cone-shaped section of the inner region, with its wide base toward the outside
  • Sinus Renal ___: the large central cavity that the dent on the inner side leads into
  • Striped How the cone-shaped sections look, because of the straight tubes and vessels inside them
  • Tough Hard to tear, like the fibrous coat around each of the kidneys
  • Vein Renal ___: the way out for blood that has been cleaned
  • Vessel Blood ___: a tube that blood flows through

How a Nephron Cleans Blood 35

  • Active Needing energy from cells, as when a substance is pumped against a gradient
  • Afferent Word for the tiny tube that leads blood into the ball of capillaries
  • Arteriole Very small blood tube; one leads into each ball of capillaries and another leads out
  • Ascending Word for the upward limb of the hairpin, which water cannot pass through
  • Bowman Surname on the sac that surrounds each ball of capillaries and catches the strained fluid
  • Convoluted Coiled and twisted: a word used for more than one section of the tiny tube
  • Corpuscle Renal ___: the ball of capillaries together with the sac around it
  • Cortical Word for the shorter kind of cleaning units, as opposed to the long kind
  • Day In a single one, the kidneys clean about 150 quarts of blood
  • Descending Word for the downward limb of the hairpin, which lets water pass out easily
  • Distal Word for the twisted section of the tiny tube that comes after the hairpin bend
  • Duct Collecting ___: the pipe that gathers urine from many of the tiny units
  • Efferent Word for the tiny tube that leads blood out of the ball of capillaries
  • Fifth One-___: the share of the blood entering the kidneys that is strained on a pass
  • Filter Strain wastes out of the blood, the main job of the kidneys
  • Filtrate Fluid that has just been strained out of the blood
  • Glomerulus Ball of tiny blood vessels where blood is first strained
  • Glucose Sugar that is strained out of the blood and then taken back
  • Loop Hairpin section of the tiny tube, named for the German anatomist who discovered it
  • Lumen Channel down the middle of a tube, where the fluid runs
  • Microscopic Far too small for the eye alone, like each of the blood-cleaning parts
  • Nephron Tiny blood cleaner made of a ball of capillaries and a long, winding tube
  • Passive Needing no energy from cells: the straining relies on the push of the blood
  • Peritubular Word for the capillaries that run alongside the tiny tube
  • Plasma Fluid part of the blood, the part that is strained as it passes through the ball
  • Podocyte Cell whose foot-like arms wrap around the capillaries of the ball
  • Protein Large molecule that stays in the blood because it is too big to pass through
  • Proximal Word for the first section of the tiny tube, which begins at the sac
  • Reabsorb Take back; the blood beside each tiny tube does this with almost all of the water
  • Secrete Move a substance out of the blood and into the tiny tube, as happens with some wastes
  • Slit Narrow gap between the foot-like arms of the wrapping cells, where fluid passes
  • Thin Not thick; walls like this let water and small wastes slip out of the blood
  • Tubule Tiny tube that returns needed substances to the blood and takes in more wastes
  • Tuft Small bunch; the anatomy word for the ball of capillaries at the start of each tiny tube
  • Unit One working part of many; each of the kidneys has a great many tiny ones

Water, Salts and Hormones 36

  • Acid Sour chemical made by the cells of the body; the kidneys remove it
  • Aldosterone Hormone from the glands above the kidneys that makes the body hold on to salt
  • Ammonia Toxic compound that the body turns into a much safer waste before it reaches the kidneys
  • Balance Steady, healthy mix, such as the one of water and salts in the blood
  • Bones The skeleton is made of these; hormones from the kidneys help keep them strong
  • Breath Air let out of the chest; a little of the body's water leaves with each one
  • Calcitriol Hormone normally made in the kidneys; it is vitamin D in its working form
  • Calcium Mineral whose level in the blood rises when the working form of vitamin D is on the job
  • Concentrate Make stronger by taking water out, as the hairpin bends help the kidneys do to urine
  • Creatinine Waste from working muscles that the kidneys send out unchanged
  • Darker How urine looks when it holds little water, as after a night of sleep
  • Electrolyte Substance that breaks up into charged particles when it dissolves in body fluids
  • Erythropoietin Substance from the kidneys that tells the body to make more red blood cells
  • Extra More than is needed; the kidneys take this much water out of the blood
  • Homeostasis The steady inner state of the body; for fluids, this system does the job of holding it
  • Ion Particle that carries an electrical charge
  • Less Not as much; children make ___ urine than adults do
  • Liquid Anything you can drink; how much you take in affects how much urine you make
  • Lungs Organs you breathe with, which also put out a waste gas and a little water
  • Marrow Soft tissue that makes red blood cells when a hormone from the kidneys calls for them
  • Metabolism All the chemical work of living cells, which leaves waste products behind
  • Nitrogen Element in the main waste that the kidneys strain out of the blood
  • Phosphorus Mineral beginning with Ph that the kidneys keep at a healthy level, with a few others
  • Potassium Mineral, symbol K, that nerves and muscles need kept at a steady level in the blood
  • Pressure Blood ___: the push of the blood, which the kidneys help keep in check
  • Quart Milk-carton measure; the kidneys make 1 to 2 of urine every 24 hours
  • Renin Enzyme given off by the kidneys that leads to a rise in the push of the blood
  • Skin Body covering whose glands get rid of some wastes
  • Sodium Mineral that one hormone tells the tiny tubes to take back
  • Sweat Salty water the body gives off on a hot afternoon, another way it loses fluid
  • Toxin Harmful substance; the kidneys help clear this kind of thing from the body
  • Urea Chief waste in urine, formed when the body breaks down proteins
  • Urobilin Pigment mainly responsible for the color of urine
  • Vasopressin Hormone that makes the collecting pipes take back more water
  • Volume Amount of space something fills; this system keeps the right one of fluid in the body
  • Yellow Usual color of urine

The Bladder and Its Muscles 40

  • Apex Top point of the storage organ, which is aimed forward
  • Balloon Party decoration whose shape, and ability to swell, the storage organ shares
  • Bladder Muscular organ where urine waits until you are ready to let it go
  • Brain Organ in the head that tells the ring muscles when to let go
  • Contract Shorten and pull tight, as the wall muscle does to send urine out
  • Control You have it over when to go, though not over how the kidneys work
  • Cups Kitchen measures; the storage organ can hold 1.5 to 2 of them
  • Detrusor Name of the muscle woven through the wall of the storage organ
  • Elastic Springy; fibers of this kind lie in the layer under the lining
  • Empty With nothing in it, like the storage organ after a trip to the bathroom
  • Expand Get bigger, like the storage organ as urine flows in
  • External Word for the outer ring muscle, the one you can tighten on purpose
  • Floor Bottom of a room; the storage organ rests on the pelvic one
  • Full Holding all it can
  • Hips You rest your hands on these; the storage organ sits between them
  • Hollow Not solid in the middle, like the organ where urine waits
  • Internal Word for the inner ring muscle, which stays closed with no thought from you
  • Micturition Medical word for passing urine
  • Mucosa Moist inner lining; in this organ it lies in folds until urine fills it
  • Neck Narrow part below the head; the storage organ has one too, at its outlet
  • Receptor Sensor; one kind in the wall of the storage organ reports how far it has been pulled
  • Reflex Automatic action; in babies, letting urine go can happen as one
  • Relax Loosen; the ring muscles do this to let urine pass
  • Reservoir Storage tank; the organ that holds urine acts like one
  • Rugae Folds in the lining that flatten out as the storage organ fills
  • Signal Message; a filling storage organ sends one that says to find a bathroom soon
  • Sphincter Ring of muscle that stays closed to keep urine in until it is time to go
  • Squeeze Tighten around something, as the muscular wall does to push urine out
  • Store Hold on to for a while, as one organ does with urine
  • Stretch Pull wider without tearing; sensors in the wall notice this as the organ fills
  • Temporary Lasting only a while, like the storage of urine before it leaves
  • Three Number of openings in the storage organ, for urine coming in and going out
  • Toilet Bathroom seat that a filling storage organ tells you to find
  • Transitional Word for the lining tissue of this system, which changes shape as it is stretched
  • Trigone Triangular area at the base of the storage organ, marked out by its openings
  • Urge Strong feeling that it is time to go
  • Urothelium Other name for the lining of the urinary system, whose top cells flatten under a pull
  • Valve One-way gate; small flaps act as this to keep urine from backing up into the narrow tubes
  • Void Short medical verb for passing urine
  • Voluntary Under your own command, like the outer ring muscle

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for a school unit on the urinary system. Facts were checked against two pages of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, The Urinary Tract and How It Works and Your Kidneys and How They Work (niddk.nih.gov), SEER Training and the NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms (cancer.gov) and English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). No illness or treatment is an answer, and no clue is advice about health. Licence: own work

How it works

This urinary system crossword puzzle prints on Letter or A4. The first puzzle has 12 easy words, among them Kidney, Ureter, Bladder, Urethra, Filter and Nephron. "Balled-up hand; each of the kidneys is about as big" is Fist.

Read the full guide

Five sets after the easy one

Kidneys to Urethra has Peristalsis, Adrenal and Fascia. Inside the Kidney has Cortex, Medulla, Calyx and Hilum. Water, Salts and Hormones has Urea, Sodium, Renin and Homeostasis. The Bladder and Its Muscles has Detrusor, Sphincter, Trigone and Rugae.

How the kidney works, in one set

How a Nephron Cleans Blood follows the fluid: strained in the Glomerulus, caught by the sac that bears the name Bowman, sorted along the Proximal section, the Loop and the Distal section, and gathered by a collecting Duct.

  • Print Kidneys to Urethra beside a diagram of the urinary tract: Ribs, Spine and Liver are clued by where the kidneys sit.

Questions and answers

What grade is the urinary system crossword puzzle for?

Easy Urinary System Words suits grades 4 to 6, with answers such as Spine, Yellow, Balloon and Brain. The five themed sets use unit vocabulary for grades 6 to 10, such as Glomerulus and Erythropoietin. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

What are the four parts of the urinary system?

Two kidneys, two ureters, the bladder and the urethra. The kidneys make urine, the ureters carry it to the bladder, the bladder stores it, and the urethra carries it out of the body.

What is another name for the urinary system?

The urinary tract or the renal system. It is sometimes called the excretory system, because it rids the body of wastes. Renal means having to do with the kidneys. Tract and Excretory are both answers in Kidneys to Urethra.

Does the urinary system crossword puzzle have an answer key?

Yes. The key prints last, on a sheet of its own: the grid filled in and the answers by clue number. Hand out the puzzle and keep the key.

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