Thanksgiving Word Search: 55 Words From the Mayflower to Mashed Potatoes
This Thanksgiving word search draws from 55 words: the people and places of the 1621 harvest, everything on the table, and the day itself, from the parade to the leftovers. Every press of New Puzzle builds a new grid, so the kids' table never runs out. It starts on Easy, where words only run across and down. Switch to Hard for words that run backward too, or print a pack with an answer key for the whole family.
📝 The Thanksgiving Word List
Each puzzle picks 8, 12 or 18 of these, depending on the size. Here is the whole list, so you can preview the words with younger children first.
- 1621: Pilgrim, Mayflower, Plymouth, Wampanoag, Harvest, Feast, Cornucopia
- On the table: Turkey, Gravy, Stuffing, Cranberry, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato, Green Beans, Corn, Squash, Rolls, Biscuits, Casserole, Roast
- Dessert: Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, Apple Pie, Pie, Dessert, Cider
- The day: November, Thursday, Holiday, Parade, Football, Family, Friends, Guests, Gathering, Together, Dinner, Table, Napkin, Oven, Recipe, Leftovers, Wishbone, Drumstick, Gobble
- Giving thanks: Grateful, Thankful, Gratitude, Blessing, Kindness, Share, Celebrate
- The season: Autumn, Leaves, Acorn
🏛️ The 1621 Harvest Behind the Words
The Mayflower reached what is now Massachusetts in late 1620, and the Pilgrims built Plymouth on land the Wampanoag people had lived on for thousands of years. After their first harvest, in the fall of 1621, the colonists held a celebration that lasted about three days. One of them, Edward Winslow, wrote that about ninety Wampanoag men came with their leader, Massasoit, and brought five deer to the feast.
Much of today's menu came later. Winslow mentions birds the colonists hunted, which may or may not have included turkey. There was no pumpkin pie, since the colonists had no ovens for baking and very little sugar. The Wampanoag are still here: the Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag tribes live in Massachusetts today. That makes the word a good place to start a lesson that tells both sides of the story.
📅 How It Became a Thursday in November
For two centuries, Thanksgiving days were set by colonies and states, on different dates. The writer Sarah Josepha Hale campaigned for years for one national holiday. In 1863 President Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. In 1941 Congress fixed it to the fourth Thursday, where it has stayed. The parade and the football came in the 1900s, and the leftovers came the day after.
Two words on the list are older than any of this. A cornucopia is Latin for "horn of plenty", a curling horn spilling over with harvest food. The wishbone game, where two people pull the forked bone and the one left holding the bigger piece gets their wish, was played with chicken and goose bones long before turkey.
📏 Which Words Fit Which Board
A word only appears on a board big enough to hold it. The two-word names are run together in the grid, so Mashed Potatoes becomes MASHEDPOTATOES, all 14 letters in a row.
| Size | Words that can appear | Left out |
|---|---|---|
| Small 9 × 9 | 50 of 55 | Pumpkin Pie, Sweet Potato, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Cornucopia |
| Medium 12 × 12 | 54 of 55 | Mashed Potatoes |
| Large 15 × 15 | All 55 | Nothing |
Two short words hide inside longer ones: Corn sits inside Cornucopia, and Pie inside Pumpkin Pie. A puzzle never uses both words of a pair, because you would find the short one twice.
🦃 Tips for This List
Thanksgiving's list is full of double letters, which jump out of a grid: stuFFing, goBBle, diNNer, cranbeRRy, fOOtbaLL, kindneSS, aPPle pie. Look for the pair first, then check the letters on either side. The rare letters help too. There are only a few Ws and Ks in a typical board, and Wampanoag, Wishbone, Turkey and Drumstick each have one. See the main word search guide for the rarest-letter trick and how the levels work.
🍽️ Ideas for Thanksgiving Day and the Classroom
- Kids' table placemats: print a pack of Small Easy puzzles with the name line turned on, one per child, and set them at each place before dinner.
- Grown-ups' table: a Large Hard puzzle has 18 words in every direction, which is enough to last until the pie.
- The week before: teachers can print a different puzzle for every day of the week from one pack, with all the answers at the back.
- After the hunt: once someone finds Grateful or Thankful, have them say one thing they are thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 For more seasonal puzzles, try the fall word search, or look ahead to the Christmas word search.