Sea Creatures Word Search

About this puzzle

Fourteen of the best-known animals in the sea, chosen from very different groups: mammals (dolphin, orca, walrus, manatee, narwhal), fish (clownfish, seahorse, stingray), a reptile (sea turtle) and invertebrates with no backbone at all (octopus, squid, jellyfish, lobster, starfish). Many of the names describe the animal — a seahorse has a horse-like head, a stingray carries a stinging spine — which makes the list fun to read aloud with young solvers.

The default layout is Easy on a 10×10 grid. Easy, Medium and Hard each use their own checked layout of the same words, and every one can be printed in standard or large print on US Letter or A4.

Word notes

Octopus

Has eight arms and three hearts, and can change the color of its skin in a fraction of a second.

Seahorse

Male seahorses carry the eggs in a pouch on their belly and give birth to the young.

Jellyfish

Not a fish at all: jellyfish have no brain, no heart and no bones.

Starfish

Scientists prefer “sea star,” since it is not a fish.

Walrus

Uses its long tusks to help haul itself out of the water onto the ice.

Manatee

A slow, plant-eating marine mammal sometimes called a sea cow.

Narwhal

An Arctic whale; its long “tusk” is actually a tooth.

Orca

Also called the killer whale, the orca is actually the largest member of the dolphin family.

Try this after the puzzle

Sort the animals into mammals, fish, reptiles and invertebrates — a good surprise for children who assume everything in the sea is a fish. Then let each solver pick one animal and share one fact about it. For a quieter follow-up, draw an ocean scene that includes at least five animals from the list.

All 14 words

Dolphin · Octopus · Seahorse · Jellyfish · Starfish · Stingray · Lobster · Walrus · Manatee · Narwhal · Clownfish · Squid · Orca · Sea Turtle