Crossword puzzles for adults
These free printable crossword puzzles are written for grown-ups, with clues that ask for general knowledge and a good vocabulary. The two easy puzzles print their answers in a word bank, which makes them a gentle start and a good fit for seniors. The medium puzzles cover cooking terms, world capitals and landmarks, and classic movies and music. The hard puzzles have 18 words each and take on world history, science, books and authors, and the kind of vocabulary word lovers enjoy. Every sheet is a clean, borderless US-letter page with large squares that are easy to write in, and the answer key is on page two.
Clues in each puzzle
Around the House (easy)
Across
- 4. Fabric drawn across a window
- 7. A visitor rings it
- 9. It browns your morning bread
- 11. Sliding compartment in a dresser
- 12. Pot that whistles when the water boils
Down
- 1. It shows your reflection
- 2. Wall-to-wall floor covering
- 3. Where coats and shoes are kept
- 5. You climb it to clean the gutters
- 6. Warm bed covering
- 8. Kitchen-sink tap
- 10. Soft headrest on a bed
In the Garden (easy)
Across
- 2. A seed's first shoot
- 6. Trim back branches
- 8. Fragrant purple herb
- 10. Small hand tool for digging
- 11. Decayed scraps that feed the soil
Down
- 1. White-petaled flower with a yellow center
- 3. Lattice that climbing vines grow on
- 4. Gather ripe crops
- 5. Unwanted garden plants
- 7. Grove of fruit trees
- 9. Spring bulb flower tied to Holland
- 12. Bark or straw spread around plants
Food & Cooking (medium)
Across
- 2. Fry quickly in a little hot fat
- 3. Decorative finishing touch on a plate
- 4. Hard Italian cheese grated over pasta
- 6. Long, crusty French loaf
- 9. Seasoned liquid that meat soaks in before cooking
- 11. Bowl with holes for draining pasta
- 13. Whipped egg whites and sugar, baked
- 14. Wire tool for beating eggs
Down
- 1. Red spice ground from dried peppers
- 5. Cook gently, just below boiling
- 6. Brown, then cook slowly in liquid
- 7. Costly golden spice from crocus flowers
- 8. Creamy Italian rice dish
- 10. Strong coffee served in a small cup
- 11. Leafy herb also called coriander
- 12. Work dough with your hands
World Travel (medium)
Across
- 3. River that flows through Vienna and Budapest
- 5. Italian city of canals and gondolas
- 6. Largest hot desert on Earth
- 10. Planned route for a trip
- 11. South America's great mountain range
- 12. Keepsake brought home from a trip
- 14. Document needed to cross borders
- 15. Where bags are inspected at the border
- 16. Capital of Portugal
Down
- 1. City of the Eiffel Tower
- 2. Egyptian capital near the Giza pyramids
- 4. World's highest mountain
- 7. Home of the Parthenon
- 8. Capital of Canada
- 9. Capital of Australia
- 13. Capital of Kenya
Movies & Music (medium)
Across
- 1. Academy Award statuette
- 3. Speed of a piece of music
- 7. Liverpool's "Fab Four"
- 8. Highest female singing voice
- 12. Person who calls "Action!"
- 14. Music style born in New Orleans
- 15. Large string instrument held between the knees
- 16. 1942 Bogart and Bergman classic
Down
- 2. Follow-up film
- 4. Extra song after the applause
- 5. Film genre of cowboys and saloons
- 6. Composer of "The Magic Flute"
- 9. Orchestral opening to an opera
- 10. Afternoon showing
- 11. Director of "Psycho" and "Vertigo"
- 13. New York's theater district
Word Lover's Vocabulary (hard)
Across
- 4. Open to more than one meaning
- 6. Calm and untroubled
- 7. Persistent; not giving up easily
- 8. Frank and honest
- 10. Seemingly everywhere at once
- 11. Lasting only a short time
- 13. Full of eager enthusiasm
- 15. Wistful longing for the past
- 16. Clearly expressed; easy to understand
- 17. Using more words than needed
- 18. Careful with money
Down
- 1. A puzzle or mystery
- 2. Charmingly old-fashioned
- 3. Extremely careful about details
- 5. Kind and generous
- 9. Practical rather than idealistic
- 12. Fluent and persuasive in speech
- 14. Requiring great effort
World History (hard)
Across
- 2. Roman leader assassinated on the Ides of March
- 3. Genoese sailor who crossed the Atlantic in 1492
- 5. Paris prison stormed on July 14, 1789
- 6. The right to vote
- 7. Ruler of ancient Egypt
- 10. European rebirth of art and learning that began in Italy
- 11. Empire whose capital was Tenochtitlan
- 13. Warrior class of feudal Japan
- 14. German inventor of the movable-type printing press
- 15. President who issued the Emancipation Proclamation
- 16. Name for the Eastern Roman Empire
Down
- 1. Warrior city-state that rivaled Athens
- 3. Medieval wars for the Holy Land
- 4. French emperor defeated at Waterloo
- 8. Pilgrims' ship of 1620
- 9. Charter King John sealed in 1215 (two words)
- 11. Agreement that stopped the fighting in November 1918
- 12. Norse seafarers and raiders
Science & Nature (hard)
Across
- 5. Second-lightest element; it fills balloons
- 9. Atom with a different number of neutrons
- 13. Protein that speeds up chemical reactions
- 14. Green pigment in leaves
- 17. Reef-building sea animal
- 18. When the moon blocks the sun
Down
- 1. Path of a planet around the sun
- 2. Molten rock beneath Earth's surface
- 3. Naturalist who wrote "On the Origin of Species"
- 4. Scientist of the laws of motion and gravity
- 6. Where a river meets the sea
- 7. Uncharged particle in an atom's nucleus
- 8. Powder bees carry between flowers
- 10. Kind of plate whose shifting causes earthquakes
- 11. Speed in a given direction
- 12. Slow-moving river of ice
- 15. The Milky Way is one
- 16. Preserved remains of ancient life
Books & Authors (hard)
Across
- 3. Author of "The Old Man and the Sea"
- 4. Figure of speech that calls one thing another
- 6. Shakespeare's Prince of Denmark
- 8. Homer's epic of a long voyage home
- 9. Holmes of Baker Street
- 10. Agatha Christie's Belgian detective
- 11. Fourteen-line poem
- 14. She wrote "Pride and Prejudice"
- 15. Surname of sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne
- 16. Building full of books to borrow
Down
- 1. Author of "Great Expectations"
- 2. Teller of the story
- 4. Melville's white whale (two words)
- 5. Russian author of "War and Peace"
- 7. Introduction before chapter one
- 8. Author of "1984"
- 12. Creator of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn
- 13. Fitzgerald's "Great" title character
Want your own word list? The crossword maker turns any list of words and clues into a printable crossword. Looking for more? Try our word searches for adults, large print word searches, hard word searches and hard mazes.
