PuzzleLime
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Crossword Maker for Teachers

Vocabulary review that students actually want to finish. Paste the terms from your unit with a clue for each, and print a worksheet with a separate answer key in a few minutes. No student accounts, no school licence, and it works for any subject and any language you teach.

Words and clues

Press Enter to add the next word. Any script works: one letter, syllable or kana per cell.

8 of 8 words placed · 13 × 12

1R2C3CLOUD4OC5EANNNV6GROUNDWATERFEP7RFNOISRVAA8PRECIPITATIONRIIOONN

Across

  1. 3 Millions of droplets floating together
  2. 4 Holds most of the water on Earth
  3. 6 Water stored in the soil and rock below us
  4. 8 Rain, snow, sleet or hail falling from clouds

Down

  1. 1 Rainwater that flows over the land into streams
  2. 2 Water vapour cooling into tiny droplets
  3. 5 Liquid water turning into a gas as it warms
  4. 7 Carries water from the hills back to the sea

Nothing leaves your browser.

Paste a list

One word per line, then its clue, for example PLANET, Earth is one. A comma, tab, dash, colon or bar between them all work. The list replaces the words you have.

From word list to worksheet in a few minutes

  1. Paste the unit's terms with their definitions, one term per line.
  2. Make sure every term found a place in the grid and give the sheet the unit's name.
  3. Print a copy for each student and keep the answer key page for yourself.

You probably have the terms already, in a spreadsheet, a slide or last year's handout. Copy the two columns, term and definition, and paste them into the list dialog: each line becomes one row, and the term and its clue can be separated by a tab, a comma, a dash, a colon or a vertical bar. A preview shows how every line was read before you import, and importing replaces the rows that were there.

A worksheet of 10 to 20 terms takes most students ten to twenty minutes; a puzzle can hold up to 60. Clues can run to 200 characters, enough for a full definition or an example sentence. Put the unit name in the title field: it is printed at the top of the sheet, next to a line for each student's name and the date.

If a term shares no letter with the others, it cannot cross them and is listed under the grid. Add a related term, or reword it, and it slots in. The grid follows every change as you type, so you can see straight away whether the puzzle is the size you want.

Clue ideas for different subjects

In science, test the process words from the unit: EVAPORATION, PHOTOSYNTHESIS, FRICTION, each clued by what it does. In history, use people, places and events, with clues such as "First emperor of Rome" or "Treaty that ended the war in 1919". Maths has its own vocabulary too: DENOMINATOR, PERIMETER, PARALLEL. For a spelling list, write each word into a sentence and leave a gap where it goes.

Language teachers can write the clue in the students' first language and the answer in the language they are learning, or the other way round. Accented letters, Cyrillic, Greek, Korean syllable blocks and Japanese kana each fill one square, so a crossword for a French, Russian or Japanese class looks the way it should.

Add a hidden solution word to check at a glance who finished the whole grid: the circled letters spell it out, and students write it in the boxes under the puzzle. It can name the next topic, or be the code for the next station of a classroom escape room.

Printing a class set and keeping the key

Print sends the pages to your browser's print dialog: the puzzle first, then the answer key, which always starts on a new page. Choose the puzzle pages in the print dialog for the class and keep the answer key for yourself. The status line above the grid counts every page of the printout, answer key included, so a puzzle that fits on one sheet shows 2 pages; trim a few terms if the puzzle runs onto a second sheet.

To prepare ahead, save the puzzle as a PDF and print it on the copier, or upload it to your class page. Download the PNG images to put the puzzle on a slide for the projector or the interactive whiteboard and go through the answers together. Paper is US Letter by default and can be switched to A4.

The puzzle you are working on is kept as a draft in your browser on this computer, so you can close the tab and finish it later. It keeps one draft at a time, so save a PDF of each finished worksheet for your files.

Frequently asked questions

Can I paste my vocabulary list from a spreadsheet?

Yes. Copy the two columns, term and definition, from Excel, Google Sheets or a table in a document, and paste them into the list dialog. Spreadsheet columns arrive separated by tabs, which the generator recognises, as it does commas, dashes, colons and vertical bars.

How many words can a classroom crossword have?

From 2 to 60. A single worksheet is usually 10 to 20 terms; a review of a whole term can hold more. The status line shows how many pages the printout takes, answer key included: a puzzle that fits on one sheet shows 2 pages, one for the puzzle and one for the key.

Do I need an account or a school licence?

No. The crossword maker is free, with no account and no limit on the number of worksheets. The words and clues you type stay in your browser, so no student data is involved.

Can I make crosswords for a foreign-language class?

Yes. Each letter, accented letter, syllable block or kana character takes one square, so you can write answers in Spanish, German, Russian, Korean or Japanese, with clues in English or in the same language.

Can I save a crossword and edit it later?

Your current puzzle is kept as a draft in this browser on this device and comes back when you return to the page. Only one draft is kept, so when a worksheet is finished, save it as a PDF before you start the next one.