Geologic Time Scale Word Search
This geologic time scale word search lists the divisions of Earth's 4.5 billion years, from eon and era down to period and epoch: the Hadean and Archean, the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic, and periods like the Cambrian and Jurassic.
Many of the names are places. The Cambrian comes from Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, and the Ordovician and Silurian are named after two tribes that lived there in Roman times. The Devonian is named for Devon in England, the Permian for the region of Perm in Russia, and the Jurassic for the Jura Mountains between France and Switzerland. The Cretaceous takes its name from creta, Latin for chalk, the rock of the white cliffs of Dover.
The lines between the periods are often drawn at mass extinctions, because the fossils change so sharply there. The end of the Permian, about 252 million years ago, wiped out most species in the sea. The end of the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago, came with an asteroid strike and ended the age of the dinosaurs. We live in the Holocene epoch, which began about 11,700 years ago as the last ice age ended.
Free Geologic Time Scale Word Search Online Game
Play the Geologic Time Scale word search in your browser, on your own or head to head against a friend in real time. Nothing to install and no account needed – send someone the link and you are both looking at the same grid.
Geologic Time Scale Word Search Printable Puzzles
Three sheets to choose from, free to print or download as a PDF. Pick a difficulty below, or open the printable Geologic Time Scale word search page to see all three together, generate a fresh grid, and check the full word list.
Hard
15x15 grid, up to 23 hidden words
Print or Download pdfMedium
12x12 grid, up to 15 hidden words
Print or Download pdfEasy
10x10 grid, 5 words across and down
Print or Download pdf
Puzzle Vocabulary Words
Below you can see all possible words that the topic Geologic Time Scale has.
Depends on difficulty level you select in the game amount of words hidden in the puzzle will be different.
In Easy game you have to find up to 5 words, medium game can have up to 15 words and hard puzzle can have up to 23 words.
Every time you start a new game - our word search generator will pick random words to build the puzzle.
- Archean
- Cambrian
- Carboniferous
- Cenozoic
- Cretaceous
- Devonian
- Eon
- Epoch
- Era
- Extinction
- Hadean
- Half Life
- Holocene
- Hutton
- Ice Age
- Index Fossil
- Jurassic
- Mammals
- Mesozoic
- Miocene
- Neogene
- Oligocene
- Ordovician
- Paleocene
- Paleogene
- Paleozoic
- Period
- Permian
- Phanerozoic
- Pleistocene
- Pliocene
- Proterozoic
- Quaternary
- Radiometric
- Silurian
- Strata
- Superposition
- Triassic
- Trilobite
- Unconformity