Seasonal & Holidays

Fall Word Search

This fall word search hides words like leaves, acorn, haystack to find. Play it free online or print the PDF with the answer key, a handy fall vocabulary activity.

10 words · 11×11 grid · Medium · Answer key included · Free printable PDF

Seasonal & Holidays

Show / hide answers

Tap the first and last letter of a word — or use arrow keys and Enter. Dragging works too.

CORNSTALK
HAYSTACK
CHESTNUT
SQUIRREL
HAYRIDE
BONFIRE
FOLIAGE
ORCHARD
LEAVES
ACORN

🎉 Solved — all 10 words found!

True stories

The giant in the field

Paris, Ontario

In the small town of Paris, Ontario, the Speers family decided their fall fair needed something unforgettable. Working with a crew of fifteen volunteers, 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, a title it has held for decades. It took ropes, cranes, and a great deal of stuffing, and crowds gathered just to stand in its shadow. 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.

Chasing the colors

Stowe, Vermont

Every autumn the hills around Stowe, Vermont, fill with travelers who come for one thing: the leaves. Locals call them leaf peepers, a nickname first printed in a Vermont newspaper in the 1960s, and they arrive by the millions. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that fall foliage brings New England billions of dollars each year, money that helps small towns through the quiet months ahead. The colors themselves are a kind of countdown. As nights grow long, trees stop making green chlorophyll, and hidden gold, orange, and crimson finally show. Visitors are really watching the forest prepare for winter, one brilliant leaf at a time.

Print this Fall word search

Did you know?

leaves: Leaves do not really gain new color in fall; fading green chlorophyll just reveals the yellows and oranges hidden all summer.
acorn: One large oak can drop up to 10,000 acorns in a bumper crop year, yet most acorns never sprout into trees.
haystack: A haystack must be built dry and packed tightly, or trapped moisture can heat the hay enough to catch fire by itself.
hayride: Early hayrides were not for fun; farm wagons hauled workers and loose hay home before the custom turned into an autumn outing.
bonfire: The word bonfire comes from bone fire, the old practice of burning animal bones in large open community fires.
chestnut: A blight wiped out billions of American chestnut trees in the early 1900s, so most roasted chestnuts today are imported.
squirrel: Squirrels bury far more nuts than they dig up, and the forgotten ones quietly grow into whole new oak forests.
foliage: New England's autumn foliage draws millions of leaf peepers each year and brings the region billions of dollars in tourism.
orchard: Apple trees in an orchard are usually grafted, so every tree of one variety is essentially a clone.
cornstalk: After the corn is picked, dried cornstalks are bundled into shocks or tied to porches as classic autumn harvest decorations.
flannel: Flannel gets its cozy warmth from a brushed, fuzzy surface that traps air close against the skin.
sweater: The word sweater comes from the heavy knit garments athletes once wore to sweat off weight before a match.
pinecone: A pinecone opens its scales in dry weather to release seeds and closes them tight when rain is near.
raincoat: The first rubberized waterproof coats were called mackintoshes, after Charles Macintosh, who patented the fabric in Scotland in 1823.

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.

In their words

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

October is the month for painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world.
Henry David Thoreau

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