cornstalkFind to reveal
A cornstalk bears separate male and female flowers: pollen comes from its tassel, while each silk leads to a developing kernel.
Fall Word Search
Find familiar words. Discover something unexpected.
Puzzle10 words · 11×11 grid · Medium · Answer key included
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🎉 Solved — all 10 words found!
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Find a puzzle word to reveal its fact.
0 of 10 facts revealed
haystackFind to reveal
Damp hay can heat itself as microbes grow, sometimes becoming hot enough for a haystack to catch fire without a spark.
chestnutFind to reveal
Sicily's Hundred Horse Chestnut is named for a legend of a queen and a hundred riders sheltering beneath one tree during storms.
squirrelFind to reveal
A squirrel can steal another's buried nuts, so some squirrels pretend to bury food when a watcher is nearby.
hayrideFind to reveal
Horses hauling hay across marshes wore broad wooden bog shoes, giving transport oversized footwear to keep hooves from sinking into soft ground.
bonfireFind to reveal
The word bonfire comes from bone fire, the old practice of burning animal bones in large open community fires.
foliageFind to reveal
Ginkgo trees can drop their yellow foliage almost overnight after a freeze, turning a canopy into a golden carpet with remarkable suddenness.
orchardFind to reveal
Apple trees in an orchard are usually grafted, so every tree of one variety is essentially a clone.
leavesFind to reveal
Autumn yellow can be hidden in a leaf all summer, while some reds are newly made as the green fades.
acornFind to reveal
One large oak can drop up to 10,000 acorns in a bumper crop year, yet most acorns never sprout into trees.
True stories · Paris, Ontario
The giant in the field
In the small town of Paris, Ontario, the Speers family built something unforgettable for their fall fair. Working with a crew of fifteen people, they raised a scarecrow they named Stretch II that towered more than 103 feet over the fairgrounds, roughly the height of a ten-story building. Guinness recorded it in 1989 as the tallest scarecrow ever built, according to its published record entry. At 31.56 meters, this was a field guardian on the scale of a building. The friendly straw giant turned an ordinary harvest fair into a story the town still tells, proof that a humble field guardian can become a landmark.
Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
George Eliot
Trivia
Which pigment fades from leaves in autumn, revealing the yellows and oranges that were there all along?
Chlorophyll.
In the Northern Hemisphere, which day around September 22 marks the start of astronomical autumn?
The autumnal equinox.
What red-and-purple pigment do leaves actually make fresh in fall, unlike the yellow ones?
Anthocyanin.
What is the affectionate nickname for tourists who travel to see colorful autumn trees?
Leaf peepers.
Which full moon nearest the autumn equinox is named for the season's gathering of crops?
The Harvest Moon.
Trivia · 1 / 5
Which pigment fades from leaves in autumn, revealing the yellows and oranges that were there all along?
Chlorophyll.
More puzzles
Seasonal
Halloween Word Search
The first jack-o'-lanterns were carved from turnips, not pumpkins, in Ireland.
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Seasonal
Thanksgiving Word Search
The turkey got its name by mistake, confused with African fowl traded through Turkey.
Play →or print
Seasonal
Winter Word Search
Snow traps air, so a well-built igloo can be much warmer inside than the air outdoors.
Play →or print
Seasonal
Christmas Word Search
Reindeer are the only deer in which both sexes grow antlers.
Play →or printTrue stories · Stowe, Vermont
Chasing the colors
Every autumn the hills around Stowe, Vermont, fill with travelers who come for one thing: the leaves. Locals call them leaf peepers, an affectionate name for visitors following the seasonal display. Their visits bring business to inns, shops and cafes along the foliage routes. The colors themselves are a kind of countdown. As nights grow long, trees stop making green chlorophyll, and yellows and oranges become visible, while some leaves make fresh red pigments. Visitors are really watching the forest prepare for winter, one brilliant leaf at a time.
October is the month for painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world.
Henry David Thoreau
Find leaves, acorn and haystack among the words hidden in this puzzle. Play free online or print the puzzle with its answer key.
Is this fall word search free to print?
This fall word search is a free printable puzzle with 10 hidden words in an 11×11 grid. Find words like CORNSTALK, HAYSTACK, CHESTNUT hidden across, down, and diagonally. You can play it right here in your browser — tap the first and last letter of a word — or download it as a printable PDF with the full answer key on page two. It's free for personal and classroom use, so teachers can print copies for a whole class with no sign-up and no account. Word searches like this one are a proven way to build vocabulary, spelling, and word-shape recognition, which is why they're a favourite with ESL learners, elementary classrooms, and anyone who likes a quiet puzzle with their coffee.
Print this Fall word search
Sources: Tallest scarecrow (Guinness World Records) · How New England leaf peeping became a thing (History.com) · Why leaves change color (SUNY ESF) · Bonfire etymology, fire of bones (Online Etymology Dictionary)
Word list, facts & trivia researched and compiled by Sam Letterman — spotted a mistake? Tell us and we’ll fix it.