Washington State Word Search

Washington's cities, volcanoes, state symbols and First Peoples in one printable puzzle with its answer key.

Name Date

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

0 of 16 words found

OCGOLDFINCHIETW

MAIKSZROAESSEIA

ISSWASHINGTONZL

LCPLLHORINENXRL

EAAZMODSIFERRYA

EDCQOROTTHLLSAW

FEEMNHDARXHRCOA

TSNTVVETEOETGSL

IEEHOENEOLAOEPL

LAEHLYDHAYDCROA

JTDECPROOMTBUKN

ETLNAFOORPEBNAL

RLEWNINDOIKTRNS

PEUMOUNTRAINIER

DYIPICKLEBALLGM

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.

OlympiaOLYMPIA
SeattleSEATTLE
SpokaneSPOKANE
Walla WallaWALLA WALLA
Space NeedleSPACE NEEDLE
Mount RainierMOUNT RAINIER
CascadesCASCADES
VolcanoVOLCANO
GoldfinchGOLDFINCH
RhododendronRHODODENDRON
SteelheadSTEELHEAD
PickleballPICKLEBALL
WashingtonWASHINGTON
StatehoodSTATEHOOD
SalmonSALMON
FerryFERRY

16 of 24 words from the Washington State Favorites list.

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Word list

Large print Lower-case letters Name and date line on paper

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Answer key: Washington State Word Search

OCGOLDFINCHIETW

MAIKSZROAESSEIA

ISSWASHINGTONZL

LCPLLHORINENXRL

EAAZMODSIFERRYA

EDCQOROTTHLLSAW

FEEMNHDARXHRCOA

TSNTVVETEOETGSL

IEEHOENEOLAOEPL

LAEHLYDHAYDCROA

JTDECPROOMTBUKN

ETLNAFOORPEBNAL

RLEWNINDOIKTRNS

PEUMOUNTRAINIER

DYIPICKLEBALLGM

OLYMPIA, SEATTLE, SPOKANE, WALLA WALLA, SPACE NEEDLE, MOUNT RAINIER, CASCADES, VOLCANO, GOLDFINCH, RHODODENDRON, STEELHEAD, PICKLEBALL, WASHINGTON, STATEHOOD, SALMON, FERRY

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All 136 words

Washington Cities and Towns 25

Aberdeen Grays Harbor city called the Gateway to the Olympic Peninsula, where a replica of the state ship was built in 1989.
Bellevue City across Lake Washington from Seattle, fifth largest in the state; its name is French for beautiful view.
Bellingham City 21 miles south of the Canadian border, on a bay that George Vancouver named in 1792.
Bremerton Largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula, home of a naval shipyard and a ferry ride west of Seattle.
Capitol Legislative Building in Olympia, with the chambers of the Legislature and the governor's office.
Ellensburg Seat of Kittitas County, just east of the Cascades on the Yakima River, in a valley known for timothy hay.
Everett Seat of Snohomish County, 25 miles north of Seattle, which prospered as a lumber center with large sawmills.
Kennewick Most populous of the three linked towns on the Columbia, across from the mouth of the Snake River.
Kent City in King County, sixth largest in the state; pupils of one of its elementary schools proposed the state insect.
Leavenworth Small city in Chelan County whose whole town center is modeled on a Bavarian village.

Show all 136 words (126 more)

Washington Cities and Towns, continued

Oak Harbor City on northern Whidbey Island whose elementary pupils proposed the orca as a state symbol.
Olympia State capital at the south end of Puget Sound; it was made capital of the territory in 1853.
Pasco Seat of Franklin County and one of three linked towns, with Kennewick and Richland as its neighbors.
Port Angeles Most populous city on the Olympic Peninsula; a Spanish explorer named its harbor in 1791.
Pullman Most populous city of Whitman County, in the Palouse hills, home of Washington State University.
Richland Town where the Yakima meets the Columbia; the U.S. Army took it over in 1943 for the Hanford site.
Seattle Most populous city in the state, named in 1852 for a leader of the Duwamish and Suquamish.
Space Needle Observation tower 605 feet high, built in Seattle for the 1962 World's Fair.
Spokane Largest city of eastern Washington and second largest in the state, 280 miles east of Seattle along I-90.
Tacoma Port city on Puget Sound, third largest in the state; it took its name from a Salish name for Mount Rainier.
Tri-Cities Kennewick, Pasco and Richland taken together, where the Yakima, Snake and Columbia rivers meet.
Vancouver Fourth largest city, on the north bank of the Columbia, founded in 1825 around a British fur trading fort.
Walla Walla City in the southeast, about 6 miles from Oregon; the Nez Perce name it carries means a place with many waters.
Wenatchee City where a river of the same name meets the Columbia; its orchards earned it the title Apple Capital of the World.
Yakima City in a farm valley noted for apples and hops, about 60 miles southeast of Mount Rainier.

Mountains, Rivers and Coast 33

Bainbridge Island city in Puget Sound, a ferry ride from downtown Seattle, where pickleball was invented in 1965.
Basalt Dark volcanic rock; floods of it built the plateau that lies between the Cascades and the Rocky Mountains.
Cape Flattery Northwesternmost point of the contiguous United States, on the Makah Reservation.
Cascades Mountain range from British Columbia to northern California that splits the state into a wet side and a dry side.
Columbia Gorge Canyon up to 4,000 feet deep and over 80 miles long where the great waterway cuts west through the Cascades.
Columbia River Largest waterway of the Pacific Northwest, 1,243 miles long; it forms most of the border with Oregon.
Dry Falls Cliff 3.5 miles long and 400 feet high in the scablands of the central state, where ice age floodwater once poured over.
Glacier Peak Fourth tallest summit in the state, a volcano also known as Dakobed that can be seen from Seattle.
Hoh Rainforest One of the largest temperate forests of its kind in the country, with about 140 inches of precipitation a year.
Hood Canal Natural, fjord-like arm of salt water up to 600 feet deep; despite its name, nobody dug it.
Juan de Fuca Strait about 96 miles long that leads to the open Pacific; the border with Canada runs down its middle.
Kulshan Another name for the glacier-covered volcano east of Bellingham.
Lahar Volcanic mudflow; the glacial ice on Mount Rainier could send massive ones down the Puyallup River valley.
Lake Chelan Narrow body of water 50.5 miles long and 1,486 feet at its deepest, third deepest in the United States.
Mount Adams Second highest peak in the state at more than 12,000 feet, a volcano with twelve named glaciers.
Mount Baker Glacier-covered volcano of 10,781 feet in the North Cascades, about 30 miles east of Bellingham.
Mount Olympus Tallest summit of the Olympic range at 7,980 feet, in the middle of a national park.
Mount Rainier Highest point in the state, an active volcano more than 14,000 feet tall, about 59 miles from Seattle.
Mount St. Helens Volcano in Skamania County that erupted on May 18, 1980, lowering its summit from 9,677 to 8,363 feet.
Palouse Region of the southeast, reaching into Idaho, that mainly grows wheat and legumes.
Peninsula Land with water on three sides; the Olympic one has the Pacific to its west and Hood Canal to its east.
Puget Sound System of salt waterways reaching about 100 miles from Deception Pass south to Olympia, part of the Salish Sea.
Rain Shadow Dry zone on the far side of a mountain range; east of the Cascades it holds steppe and a few true deserts.
Ring of Fire Belt of volcanoes and mountains around the Pacific Ocean that the Cascades belong to.
Salish Sea Shared name for the Strait of Georgia, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound and the channels between them.
San Juan Islands Archipelago between the mainland and Canada, scene of the Pig War; state ferries reach four of its members.
Scablands Barren basalt country of dry channels and coulees, scoured by more than 40 ice age floods.
Skagit River Waterway about 150 miles long that drains part of the Cascades into the northern end of Puget Sound.
Snake River Largest tributary of the Columbia, about 1,080 miles long; it crosses the Palouse hills and joins it just below the Tri-Cities.
Snoqualmie Name shared by a 268-foot waterfall east of Seattle and the pass that carries I-90 over the Cascades.
Tahoma Another name for the highest mountain in the state, the one the city of Tacoma is named after.
Volcano What Baker, Glacier Peak, Rainier, St. Helens and Adams all are, named here from north to south.
Whidbey Island Largest isle in the state, about 30 miles north of Seattle, forming the northern boundary of Puget Sound.

Washington State Symbols 25

Alki Unofficial state motto, by and by in Chinook Jargon; also the point where the first Seattle settlers landed in 1851.
Apple The state fruit since 1989; Washington grows more of it than any other state.
Arboretum Living museum of plants; the one in Washington Park in Seattle has been the official state one since 1995.
Chorus Frog The state amphibian since 2007, the Pacific kind; it lives in every county, and third graders proposed it.
Evergreen The ___ State: a nickname for Washington that the Legislature has never officially adopted.
Flag Dark green with the state seal in the center; adopted in 1923, it was the first official symbol.
Goldfinch The state bird since 1951, the willow kind; school children chose it over the meadowlark.
Green Darner The state insect since 1997, a dragonfly backed by children in more than 100 school districts.
Mammoth The state fossil since 1998, the Columbian kind; pupils of a school near Cheney worked four years for it.
Olympia Oyster A state symbol since 2014, the only shellfish of its kind native to Washington.
Olympic Marmot The state endemic mammal since 2009, a highly social animal easy to spot on Hurricane Ridge in summer.
Orca The state marine mammal since 2005; pods migrate through Puget Sound each year.
Palouse Falls The state waterfall since 2014, 198 feet high, created by ice age floods.
Petrified Wood The state gem since 1975: ancient trees whose fibers were replaced by silica, found in almost every county.
Pickleball The state sport since 2022, a paddle game invented by several families on Bainbridge Island in 1965.
Rhododendron The state flower: Washington women picked the coast kind in 1892, and lawmakers made it official in 1959.
Roll On Columbia The state folk song since 1987, written in 1941 about the harnessing of the Northwest's largest waterway.
Seal Round emblem with a portrait of George Washington and the date 1889.
Square Dance A state symbol since 1979: a folk tradition for four couples, named for the shape they form.
Steelhead The state fish since 1969, a rainbow trout that goes to sea and one of the most popular catches in Washington.
Suciasaurus Rex The state dinosaur since 2023, a nickname for the state's first dinosaur fossil, a theropod found in 2012.
Sweet Onion The state vegetable since 2007, the Walla Walla kind, grown from seed a French soldier brought from Corsica.
Tartan State plaid designed in 1988: green for forests, blue for water, white for snowy mountains, black for the 1980 eruption.
Western Hemlock The state tree since 1947, the second official symbol after the flag.
Wheatgrass The state grass since 1989, the bluebunch kind, native to eastern Washington; Montana has the same one.

First Peoples and Statehood 31

Canoe Boat the coastal peoples are noted for carving, along with welcome figures, long houses and masks.
Centennial The state's hundredth birthday in 1989, marked with a tartan and a replica sailing ship.
Chief Seattle Leader of the Duwamish and Suquamish, born about 1780, who chose accommodation with the settlers; a city bears his name.
Chinook Jargon Pidgin language of commerce that spread from the lower Columbia in the 1800s; the motto Al-ki comes from it.
Coast Salish Large, loose grouping of related peoples living around Puget Sound and north into British Columbia.
Colville Interior Salish people of the Northwest Plateau, enrolled today in a confederation of tribes.
Cowlitz Name covering two distinct peoples; to those who live near it, Mount St. Helens is Lawetlat'la.
Duwamish Lushootseed-speaking people of the Seattle area, who had at least 17 villages around Elliott Bay.
Eruption What happened at Mount St. Helens at 8:32 in the morning on May 18, 1980.
Fur Trade Business of the British post built on the Columbia in the winter of 1824 to 1825, where Vancouver stands today.
Hanford Site on the Columbia set up in 1943 for the Manhattan Project, with the first full-scale plutonium reactor.
Klondike Gold rush of 1896 to 1898 in the Yukon; the news reached Seattle in 1897 and set off a stampede of prospectors.
Legislature Body of 98 representatives and 49 senators that meets in Olympia and designates the state symbols.
Lewis and Clark Captains of the Corps of Discovery, which came down the Columbia and reached the Pacific in 1805.
Lummi Central Coast Salish people of the San Juan Islands and the mainland near Bellingham.
Lushootseed Language once spoken around Puget Sound from about Bellingham to Olympia; the word geoduck comes from it.
Makah People whose reservation takes in Cape Flattery, closely related to peoples across the strait on Vancouver Island.
Nez Perce Plateau people who bred the Appaloosa horse; their own name is Nimiipuu, and a word of theirs named Walla Walla.
Oregon Treaty Agreement of June 15, 1846 in which Britain gave up its claim to the land below the 49th parallel.
Parallel Line of latitude; the 49th one forms most of the northern border with Canada.
Pig War Border standoff of 1859 in the San Juan Islands with no human casualties; its one victim gave it its name.
Point Elliott Treaty signed on January 22, 1855 at what is now Mukilteo with the tribes of the greater Puget Sound region.
Puyallup Lushootseed-speaking people of the Tacoma area; the name means people of the bend.
Quinault Coast Salish people of western Washington, named for a village at the mouth of their river, today called Taholah.
Statehood Reached on November 11, 1889, when Washington became the 42nd state.
Suquamish Southern Coast Salish people whose main village stood on the northeastern Kitsap Peninsula.
Territory What Washington was from March 2, 1853 until it joined the Union.
Tulalip Federally recognized tribes of Snohomish, Skagit and other peoples, with a reservation set up by an 1855 treaty.
Washington The only U.S. state that bears a president's name; Congress chose the name in 1853.
World's Fair Event of 1962 in Seattle, the Century 21 Exposition, which nearly 10 million people attended.
Yakama Nation whose reservation of about 1.2 million acres lies along the Yakima River; note the spelling with three As.

Farms, Forests and Ferries 22

Cedar The western red kind is a giant of the cypress family, growing up to 230 feet tall in the mild, wet Northwest.
Cherries Sweet stone fruit that Washington leads the nation in growing; red in the state tartan stands for them and for apples.
Douglas Fir Tallest tree of the pine family; the ports of Puget Sound prospered by shipping its timber.
Dungeness Crab named for a spit on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, one of the chief seafood catches of the west coast.
Elk The Roosevelt kind, also called Olympic, is the largest in North America by body mass.
Ferry Boat for cars and riders; the state runs the largest system of them in the country, on 8 routes to 20 terminals.
Geoduck Largest burrowing clam in the world, with a Lushootseed name and a typical lifespan of 140 years.
Grand Coulee Concrete dam on the Columbia begun in 1933, the largest power station in the United States.
Hay The timothy kind from the Kittitas Valley around Ellensburg is shipped to other countries.
Hops Crop the Yakima Valley is noted for; Washington grows more of it than any other state.
Hydroelectric Kind of power made by falling water; 14 dams on the main stem of the Columbia produce it.
Irrigation Watering of dry farmland, one of the two jobs the Grand Coulee Dam was built to do.
Lentils Small legume that Washington ranks high in growing, along with dry edible peas.
Lumber Sawn timber; Washington is a leading producer, and the ports of Puget Sound prospered by shipping it.
Orchard Field of fruit trees; the Yakima River valley grew famous for apple ones in the early years of the state.
Pears Fruit that Washington leads the nation in growing, as it does apples and sweet cherries.
Raspberries Red berries; in 2014 Washington grew about 90 percent of the national crop.
Salmon Fish that migrate between the Columbia and the ocean; they were the core food of the native peoples of the river.
Sawmill Where logs are cut into boards; Everett prospered with several large ones.
Shipbuilding Industry listed among the main kinds of manufacturing in the state; Bremerton has a naval yard for it.
Spearmint Herb grown for its oil; Washington is the largest producer in the United States.
Wheat Grain of the Palouse and of dry farming in the east; yellow stands for it in the state tartan.

How this list was compiled: 136 Washington state words in 5 themed lists, chosen and defined for this site. Facts in the clues were checked on 2026-09-19 against English Wikipedia, chiefly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_(state) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Washington_state_symbols. Two clues were reworded on 2026-09-20; the height of Mount Adams was rechecked against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Adams_(Washington). Licence: own work

How it works

This Washington state word search is made for a state history unit. It opens with 16 of 24 favorites in the grid, such as Olympia, Steelhead and Pickleball, and five more lists run from cities to state symbols.

Read the full guide

Choose the list for the lesson

Start from a list has five topics: Washington Cities and Towns with 25 words, Mountains, Rivers and Coast with 33, Washington State Symbols with 25, First Peoples and Statehood with 31 and Farms, Forests and Ferries with 23. Volcano day brings Lahar and Kulshan; treaty day brings Point Elliott and Lushootseed.

State symbols as clues

Click Washington State Symbols, then tick Show clues, not words, in More options. The sheet now says "The state fruit since 1989; Washington grows more of it than any other state" and pupils search for Apple. Most symbol clues give the year of adoption. Clues fill the page, so print 8 or 12.

Washington is hidden, so Lady Washington, the state ship, and Lake Washington are not: the state's name reads inside both.
Mount St. Helens, Tri-Cities and World's Fair go in as MOUNTSTHELENS, TRICITIES and WORLDSFAIR. Write one on the board first.
Names past 14 letters are cut: Walla Walla Sweet Onion hides as SWEETONION, Columbian Mammoth as MAMMOTH.

Questions and answers

Which Native nations of Washington are in the puzzle?

First Peoples and Statehood names 12: Duwamish, Suquamish, Puyallup, Lummi, Quinault, Tulalip, Makah, Yakama, Nez Perce, Colville, Cowlitz and Coast Salish. Each clue gives a place, a language, a treaty or a name. No sacred story is told.

Is the Evergreen State the official nickname of Washington?

No. The Legislature has never officially adopted the nickname, and the motto Al-ki, Chinook Jargon for by and by, is unofficial too. The first official symbol was the flag in 1923, the second the western hemlock in 1947. All four are hidden here.

Which Washington state symbols did students propose?

Pupils in Kent proposed the green darner, pupils in Oak Harbor the orca and third graders in Olympia the Pacific chorus frog. A school near Cheney worked four years for the Columbian mammoth, and two more schools won the Walla Walla sweet onion in 2007.

How do I make the puzzle easier or harder?

For grades 2 and 3, Easy Washington State has 18 short words, such as Orca, Elk and Hops. For grades 6 to 8, click Hard Washington State, 92 entries from Rhododendron to Hydroelectric, and press Hard. Sixteen of them fit the opening grid.

All 136 words

Washington Cities and Towns 25

Washington Cities and Towns, continued

Mountains, Rivers and Coast 33

Washington State Symbols 25

First Peoples and Statehood 31

Farms, Forests and Ferries 22

How it works

Choose the list for the lesson

State symbols as clues

Questions and answers

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