puzzPrintable dinosaur word search for kids
There is a particular kind of child who can name forty dinosaurs and read very little else, and this pack is aimed squarely at them. Dinosaur names are long, strange and phonetically demanding, which makes them genuinely rewarding to find in a grid — a child who tracks a nine-letter name letter by letter has done real decoding work while believing they were playing.
The three grids are 9x9 at medium setting with diagonals in play, and the words are drawn from a curated dinosaur and fossil list. Because the names are long, the grids feel denser than other medium packs; expect these to take a little longer than the space or animal sheets.
What is in this pack
| Theme | dinosaurs, fossils and the prehistoric | |
|---|---|---|
| Grid | 9x9 letters, medium setting | |
| Words hidden | seven or eight per puzzle, often long | |
| Directions | across, down and forward diagonals | |
- Four A4 pagesThree puzzles, then a full answer key. Print the first three only if you would rather keep the answers.
- One verified solution eachEvery puzzle is passed through a solver and discarded unless exactly one answer fits.
- No sign-up, no watermarkA direct PDF download. No email address, no account, nothing to dismiss.
- Free to photocopyUse them at home, in a classroom, at a childminder or in a holiday club.
Teaching tip. Have the child sound out each dinosaur name before hunting it. Breaking a long name into syllables makes it far easier to hold in mind while scanning, and it is the same skill that unlocks long words in reading generally.
How to solve a word search
There is a method beyond staring, and children who learn it get dramatically faster.
- Read the word list firstLook at the list before touching the grid. Pick one word to hunt for rather than trying to spot all of them at once — searching for a single target is far faster than scanning for anything at all.
- Hunt the first letter, not the wordChoose the word you want, then sweep the grid for just its first letter. Every time you land on one, glance at the neighbouring letters to see whether the second letter follows. Most letters are ruled out in under a second.
- Start with the longest wordsLong words are much easier to spot and, once ringed, they cut the grid down for everything else. Working longest-first also means the hardest finds happen while the child is still fresh.
- Check every direction the grid allowsEasy grids hide words across and down only. Medium grids add both diagonals, and tricky grids also run words backwards, upwards and diagonally up. If a word will not appear, it is nearly always running in a direction the child has not thought to look in yet.
- Ring it and cross it offDraw a loop round each word in the grid and strike it off the list at the same time. Keeping the two in step stops the frustrating end-game of re-hunting a word that was already found.
Who this pack suits
See the age guide on the word search page for how this pack compares to the others.
How the word search packs compare
| Word Search pack | Ages | What it asks of them |
|---|---|---|
| Easy, 7x7 | 5-7 | Five or six short words, across and down only. Nothing backwards, nothing diagonal. |
| Medium, 9x9 | 7-9 | Seven or eight words, and diagonals appear for the first time. |
| Tricky, 11x11 | 9-12 | Nine or ten longer words, running in all eight directions including backwards. |
| Themed packs | 5-9 | A single subject per pack — good for topic work, a party or a rainy afternoon. |
Questions about this pack
Are the dinosaur names too long for young children?
They are long, but that helps in a word search — a nine-letter word is much easier to spot than a three-letter one. The reading demand is the harder part, which is why this pack is set at seven and up.
What age is the dinosaur word search for?
Seven to ten. A younger dinosaur enthusiast can do it with an adult reading the word list aloud.
Does the pack include fossil and prehistoric words as well as dinosaur names?
Yes. The curated list mixes dinosaur names with related vocabulary, so the pack supports a prehistory topic rather than just testing name recall.
Is there an answer key?
Yes — page four of the pack rings every word in every grid, which is worth having when the words are this long.
More free worksheets
Other word search packs
Other kinds of puzzle
See all 17 free worksheet packs.
Hundreds more of these in the app
Puzzeroo is an iPhone and iPad app with two hundred word search levels alongside three other puzzle types — eight hundred in total, all generated by the same verified engines that made this worksheet, all working fully offline with no adverts and no accounts. The worksheets and the app draw from completely separate puzzle ranges, so printing these gives nothing away.