50 States Crossword Puzzle Printable

Print a criss-cross crossword of state names clued by nickname, or choose a Capitals set for a state capitals puzzle.

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50 States Crossword

Read each clue and write the answer in the squares that start at its number, one letter in each square.

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  • Arizona
  • Delaware
  • Iowa
  • Maryland
  • Montana
  • Ohio
  • Oregon
  • Vermont

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Answer key: 50 States Crossword

1I2M3MONTANAWRAY4O5VLR6DEL7AWARERRNGMIDOOZNN8OHIOTNA

Across 3 MONTANA · 6 DELAWARE · 8 OHIO

Down 1 IOWA · 2 MARYLAND · 4 OREGON · 5 VERMONT · 7 ARIZONA

Next step Find all 50 states in a word searchPrint the US states flashcards

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State Names 25

  • Alabama The Yellowhammer State, first of the fifty in A to Z order
  • Alaska The Last Frontier, largest state by area
  • Arizona The Copper State, the 48th to join, in 1912
  • Arkansas The Natural State; the last letter of its name is silent
  • Delaware The First State: it approved the nation's founding document before any other, in 1787
  • Florida The Sunshine State, a long peninsula pointing toward Cuba
  • Georgia The Peach State, where the 1996 Summer Olympics were held
  • Hawaii The Aloha State, a chain of volcanic islands far out in the Pacific
  • Idaho The Gem State, famous for potatoes
  • Iowa The Hawkeye State, a top grower of corn
  • Kansas The Sunflower State, a top grower of wheat
  • Kentucky The Bluegrass State, known for horse farms
  • Maine The Pine Tree State, the only state that touches exactly one other
  • Maryland The Old Line State, wrapped around a great bay
  • Michigan The Wolverine State, made of two peninsulas
  • Missouri The Show-Me State, home of the Gateway Arch
  • Montana The Treasure State, also called Big Sky Country
  • Nevada The Silver State, driest of the fifty
  • Ohio The Buckeye State, birthplace of seven presidents
  • Oregon The Beaver State, between California and Washington
  • Rhode Island The Ocean State, which has the least land of any state
  • Texas The Lone Star State, largest of the 48 connected states
  • Utah The Beehive State, home of five national parks
  • Vermont The Green Mountain State, top maker of maple syrup
  • Wyoming The Equality State, home to fewer people than any other state

Capitals: Northeast and South 23

  • Albany New York's capital city, upstate
  • Annapolis Capital that is home to the U.S. Naval Academy
  • Atlanta Capital first called Terminus, where rail lines came together
  • Augusta Easternmost state capital, on the Kennebec River
  • Austin Capital named for the "Father" of the Lone Star State
  • Baton Rouge Louisiana's capital city
  • Boston Massachusetts's capital city
  • Charleston West Virginia's capital city, on the Kanawha River
  • Columbia South Carolina's capital city, near the middle of the state
  • Concord New Hampshire's capital city, on the Merrimack River
  • Harrisburg Pennsylvania's capital city
  • Hartford Connecticut's capital city
  • Jackson Mississippi's capital city
  • Little Rock Capital named for a small stone outcrop on a riverbank
  • Montgomery Capital where the bus boycott of 1955 began
  • Montpelier State capital with the fewest people, under 10,000
  • Nashville Tennessee's capital city
  • Oklahoma City Capital whose name adds one word to its state's name
  • Providence Capital where Narragansett Bay begins
  • Raleigh North Carolina's capital city, called the City of Oaks
  • Richmond Virginia's capital city, on the James River
  • Tallahassee Capital whose Muskogean name is often translated as old fields
  • Trenton New Jersey's capital city, across a river from Pennsylvania

Capitals: Midwest and West 21

  • Bismarck North Dakota's capital city, named for a German chancellor
  • Boise Capital whose name comes from the French for wooded
  • Carson City Capital named for a frontier scout called Kit
  • Cheyenne Capital named for a Native American nation
  • Columbus Capital named for the explorer who crossed the Atlantic in 1492
  • Denver Colorado's capital city
  • Helena Capital that began as a gold camp in 1864
  • Honolulu Capital on the island of Oahu
  • Indianapolis Indiana's capital city
  • Juneau Capital that no road connects with the remainder of North America
  • Lincoln Nebraska's capital city
  • Madison Wisconsin's capital city
  • Olympia Washington's capital city
  • Phoenix Desert capital with more people than any other state capital
  • Pierre South Dakota's capital city, pronounced like "peer"
  • Sacramento California's capital city
  • Saint Paul Minnesota's capital city
  • Salem Capital in the Willamette Valley
  • Salt Lake City Capital named for the briny inland sea beside it
  • Santa Fe New Mexico's capital city, the oldest state capital, founded in 1610
  • Springfield Illinois's capital city

State Nicknames 22

  • Badger Wisconsin's nickname: the ___ State
  • Centennial Colorado's nickname: the ___ State
  • Constitution Connecticut's nickname: the ___ State
  • Cornhusker Nebraska's nickname: the ___ State
  • Empire New York's well-known nickname: the ___ State
  • Enchantment New Mexico's well-known nickname: the Land of ___
  • Evergreen Washington's nickname: the ___ State
  • Garden New Jersey's well-known nickname: the ___ State
  • Golden California's nickname: the ___ State
  • Granite New Hampshire's well-known nickname: the ___ State
  • Hoosier Indiana's nickname: the ___ State
  • Keystone Pennsylvania's nickname: the ___ State
  • Magnolia Mississippi's nickname: the ___ State
  • North Star Minnesota's nickname: the ___ State
  • Old Dominion Virginia's nickname: the ___
  • Palmetto South Carolina's well-known nickname: the ___ State
  • Pelican Louisiana's nickname: the ___ State
  • Prairie Illinois's nickname: the ___ State
  • Rushmore South Dakota's well-known nickname: the Mount ___ State
  • Sooner Oklahoma's nickname: the ___ State
  • Tar Heel North Carolina's well-known nickname: the ___ State
  • Volunteer Tennessee's nickname: the ___ State

Landforms and Waters 31

  • Appalachian ___ Trail: footpath of about 2,200 miles through 14 eastern states
  • Badlands South Dakota national park of striped, crumbling hills
  • Bering ___ Strait: narrow water between the Last Frontier state and Russia
  • Black Hills South Dakota's pine-covered mountains, where four presidents' faces are carved in a cliff
  • Blue Ridge Hazy-looking mountain range of Virginia and North Carolina, crossed by a famous parkway
  • Cape Cod Sandy peninsula of southeastern Massachusetts, reaching into the Atlantic
  • Cascades Volcanic range of the Northwest that includes Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens
  • Chesapeake The United States' biggest estuary, known for blue crabs
  • Crater Lake Deepest freshwater body in the United States, filling a collapsed volcano
  • Death Valley Hottest, driest and lowest place in North America
  • Denali The Last Frontier state's name for the tallest mountain in North America, and for the national park around it
  • Erie Shallowest of the five big northern lakes, with Cleveland and Buffalo on its shore
  • Everglades Slow, shallow "river of grass" at the southern tip of the Sunshine State
  • Grand Canyon Mile-deep gorge the Colorado River cut
  • Great Plains Wide, flat grassland down the middle of the country, once home to huge bison herds
  • Hudson River named for an English explorer; it meets the sea at Manhattan
  • Huron Big northern lake that holds Manitoulin, the world's largest lake island
  • Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island that erupted almost without a break from 1983 to 2018
  • Long Island Part of New York east of Manhattan that holds Brooklyn and Queens
  • Mojave Dry home of the Joshua tree, between Los Angeles and Las Vegas
  • Niagara ___ Falls: thundering waterfalls shared by New York and a neighboring country
  • Ontario Easternmost of the five big northern lakes, with Toronto on its shore
  • Outer Banks String of sandy barrier islands off North Carolina
  • Potomac River that flows past the nation's capital
  • Rio Grande River between the Lone Star State and the country to its south; its Spanish name means big river
  • Rockies Great chain of western mountains running north from New Mexico
  • Superior Northern lake with the greatest surface area of any freshwater lake on Earth
  • Tahoe Deep blue mountain lake that California shares with the Silver State
  • Yellowstone First national park, home of the geyser Old Faithful
  • Yosemite California national park known for El Capitan and Half Dome
  • Yukon Long river that crosses the Last Frontier state on its way west to the sea

Borders and Map Words 29

  • Abbreviation CA, NY or WV, as written on an envelope
  • Border Edge of a state on a map, often drawn along a river
  • Borough What the Last Frontier state calls its local divisions
  • Canada Neighbor to the north
  • Capitol Building, often domed, where a state's lawmakers meet
  • Census National head count taken every ten years
  • Coast Where land meets sea; the West one runs from San Diego to Seattle
  • Colony Virginia or New York, before 1776
  • Contiguous Describes the 48 states that touch one another
  • County Unit of local government; most states are divided into dozens
  • District Washington, D.C. is a federal one, not a state
  • Four Corners Spot where Colorado and three other states meet at a single point
  • Governor Person who signs a state's bills into law, chosen by its voters
  • Guam Pacific island that belongs to the United States; its capital is Hagåtña
  • Heartland Nickname for the farm states in the middle of the country
  • Interstate Highway marked with a red, white and blue shield
  • Landlocked Describes a state with no seashore, such as Nebraska
  • Midwest Name for the twelve north-central states, home of the corn belt
  • New England Six northeastern states, from Connecticut up to the Pine Tree State
  • Panhandle Narrow strip of a state that sticks out like a skillet's grip, as in Oklahoma
  • Parish What Louisiana calls each of its 64 local divisions
  • Puerto Rico Caribbean island that belongs to the United States; its capital is San Juan
  • Region The West or the South, for instance: a group of states
  • Southwest Dry corner of the country, known for mesas, adobe and saguaro cactus
  • Statehood What the Aloha State gained in 1959
  • Sun Belt Warm band of states across the southern third of the country
  • Territory Land that belongs to the country without being a state, such as American Samoa
  • Time zone Eastern, Central, Mountain or Pacific
  • Union All the states together; the 50th joined it in 1959

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for elementary and middle school classes: state names clued by nickname, state capitals in two halves by Census region, nickname words, landforms and waters, and map words. Capitals were checked against Wikipedia's list of capitals in the United States, and each nickname in two works, Wikipedia's list of state nicknames and Wiktionary (both CC BY-SA 4.0), in October 2026. No clue was copied from a published puzzle. Licence: own work

How it works

This 50 states crossword puzzle is a printable vocabulary crossword of the United States. It opens on state names clued by nickname, with sets for capitals, landforms and map words: a USA crossword, printable for a geography unit.

Read the full guide

A United States crossword puzzle, printable set by set

State Names clues 25 states by nickname: the Buckeye State, the Aloha State. Capitals: Northeast and South runs from Augusta to Austin, and Capitals: Midwest and West from Columbus to Honolulu. State Nicknames asks for the missing word, such as Empire or Hoosier. Landforms and Waters has Denali, Everglades and Rio Grande. Borders and Map Words has Panhandle, Territory and Four Corners.

States and capitals by region

The two capital sets follow the Census Bureau's four regions, so a class on the Northeast and South prints only those capitals.

  • Uncheck Word bank under the clues in More options once a class knows its state nicknames.

Questions and answers

Are all 50 states in the puzzle?

Yes. Each state is an answer or is named in a clue: 25 state names are answers, and the other 25 are named in clues for their capitals or nicknames. Answers stop at 12 letters, so Massachusetts and the Carolinas appear in clues.

Is this a state capitals crossword, printable with an answer key?

Yes. Choose either Capitals set under Clue set and every answer is a state capital. More than half the clues name the state; the rest give a fact, such as the capital on the island of Oahu. The answer key prints last.

Is there a USA crossword for kids, printable with a word bank?

Yes. State Names opens with a word bank under the clues, which suits about grades 3 to 5. The Landforms and Waters set is harder. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

Which state nicknames do the clues use?

One each for 47 states, such as the Lone Star State for Texas, the Wolverine State for Michigan and the Empire State for New York. Many states have several nicknames, so a class may know another.

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