Music Word Search
Instruments, music terms and composers hidden in a grid, to print for a lesson or play online.
How to make a music word search
- Pick a topic from the list: Instruments, Music terms, Music genres, Composers or Christmas carols. The page opens on Instruments.
- Choose a grid size, from 8×8 up to 30×30. The number of words starts at a good number for that size. You can change it to any number from 4 to 60.
- Choose a difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard or Expert. The hint line under the setting shows which directions the words can run.
- To use your own list, choose ‘My own words’ and type the words you want in the puzzle.
- Click or tap the first letter of a word, then its last letter. With a mouse, you can also drag across the letters. A found word gets a coloured outline and is ticked in ‘Find these words’.
- Press ‘Hint’ to make the first letter of an unfound word flash. Press ‘Show answers’ to outline every word.
- When all the words are found, the status line shows your time. Press ‘Next puzzle’ for a new grid with the same settings.
- To print, open the ‘Print’ panel.
On a keyboard, use the arrow keys to move and Enter or Space to mark a letter. The game is saved in this browser, so reloading the page continues it. To share the exact puzzle, press ‘Copy link’.
What music topics are there?
The tool offers five music topics, and each one has its own word list. Instruments has 51 entries, from Piano and Violin to Glockenspiel and Didgeridoo. Music terms has 57 entries, such as Tempo, Crescendo, Staccato and Treble clef, so it works as a music terms word search. Music genres has 53 entries. Composers has 60 surnames of classical composers, including Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Christmas carols has 33 traditional titles, which suits a December lesson. The two most used lists:
Instruments (51 words): Piano, Guitar, Violin, Viola, Cello, Double bass, Harp, Flute, Piccolo, Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon, Saxophone, Trumpet, Trombone, French horn, Tuba, Cornet, Drums, Timpani, Xylophone, Marimba, Glockenspiel, Triangle, Tambourine, Cymbals, Maracas, Castanets, Banjo, Mandolin, Ukulele, Harmonica, Accordion, Organ, Harpsichord, Synthesizer, Bagpipes, Recorder, Ocarina, Sitar, Bongos, Congas, Gong, Kazoo, Dulcimer, Zither, Lute, Cowbell, Bugle, Celesta, Didgeridoo.
Music terms (57 words): Tempo, Rhythm, Melody, Harmony, Crescendo, Staccato, Treble clef, Bass clef, Forte, Legato, Allegro, Adagio, Andante, Presto, Largo, Sharp, Flat, Natural, Rest, Note, Staff, Measure, Bar line, Time signature, Key signature, Octave, Scale, Chord, Interval, Pitch, Dynamics, Fermata, Coda, Tonic, Triad, Arpeggio, Cadence, Syncopation, Decrescendo, Diminuendo, Ritardando, Accelerando, Vibrato, Tremolo, Pizzicato, Sonata, Symphony, Concerto, Overture, Aria, Chorus, Refrain, Ostinato, Counterpoint, Whole note, Half note, Quarter note.
The default puzzle is an instrument word search, and it shows how words are placed. ZITHER starts in row 7, column 7 and runs diagonally up to the right. CELLO starts in row 12, column 9 and runs left to right. TAMBOURINE starts in row 14, column 4 and runs diagonally up to the right. Open the same puzzle to check these positions yourself.
Can music teachers use their own terms?
Yes. Choose ‘My own words’ and enter the terms from this week’s class, and the puzzle is built from them. For younger students, Easy or Medium is a good start. For older students, choose Hard or Expert.
The difficulty levels follow clear rules. Easy words run only left to right or top to bottom, and they never cross. Medium adds diagonals running down-right and up-right, but words still never run backwards. Hard allows all eight directions, including backwards, and words may cross where their letters agree. Expert also uses all eight directions, tries crossings first, and takes the filler letters from the hidden words, so the whole grid looks alike.
Every hidden word appears exactly once in the grid. A word that is part of a longer word only counts where it was placed. For example, if both CAT and CATERPILLAR are on the list, the CAT inside CATERPILLAR does not count; CAT is hidden once more on its own.
Frequently asked questions
Can I print it?
Yes. Open the ‘Print’ panel and choose between 1 and 20 copies. Every copy has a different arrangement, and copy 1 is the puzzle on screen. You can pick Letter or A4 paper and four or one answer key per page. Each puzzle prints on its own page with Name and Date lines. To save a PDF, choose ‘Save as PDF’ in the print window.
Is it free?
Yes. The tool runs in your web browser with no sign-up and no download. Nothing is uploaded to a server.
Are my own words kept private?
Yes. Your own words never leave your browser. In a copied link, they sit after the # sign, which browsers do not send to a server.
How do I solve a music word search faster?
Start with words that have an unusual letter (Q, X, Z, J, K) or a double letter (OO, LL, SS) and look for that letter first. Take the first letter of a word and check all eight neighbouring squares for its second letter. Find the longest words first, and cross each word off as you go. On Hard and Expert, also read backwards and upwards.
What if a topic has too few words for my grid?
The tool uses all the words that fit and tells you so. If you want more words in the puzzle, try a larger grid.
Related tools
- Christmas word search: Use it for a holiday activity with a seasonal theme.
- Word search puzzles for adults: Use it when you want harder, more detailed grids for grown-up solvers.
- Hard word search: Use it when you want words that run backwards and crossing.
- Printable word search puzzles: Use it when you need paper copies for a class or a meeting.
- Word search for kids: Use it for younger solvers who need simpler grids.
- Word search maker: Use it to build a puzzle on any topic, including your own word list.