Third Grade Math Vocabulary

Math Hard 29 words1 plays

Measuring instruments including ruler, scale, and cup.

ANGLE
AREA
ASSOCIATIVE
CAPACITY
CENTIMETER
COMMUTATIVE
CUSTOMARY UNITS
DIGIT
DIVISION
FOOT
FRACTION
GALLON
GRAM
INVERSE
MASS
METRIC UNITS
MULTIPLE
MULTIPLICATION
NUMBERLINE
OUNCE
PERIMETER
PLACE VALUE
POUND
PROPERTIES
QUADRILATERAL
RECTANGLE
RHOMBUS
WEIGHT
YARD

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Measurement and shapes open third-grade math: area, perimeter, weight, capacity. Fractions begin, operations deepen, and place value multiplies.

Third Grade Math Vocabulary word search printable sheet, 29 words to find — Third Grade Math Vocabulary word search, printable sheet

Tips for Solving Word Search Puzzles

Words in this puzzle run in all eight directions: across, down and diagonally, and some of them read backwards. Knowing the rules narrows the search before you start.

How hints work

Press and hold a word in the list beside the puzzle above, or hold Space or Enter on it from the keyboard, and a ring fills while you wait. After five seconds every cell where that word's first letter appears is outlined in the grid. Keep holding another six seconds and the outlines narrow to only the places where its second letter follows on. Let go and the outlines clear. A word found with help keeps its outline, in the grid and in the list, so you can see afterwards which ones needed a hint. Hints are available while the clock is running, not while the puzzle is paused.

Ways to find a stubborn word

Check the edges for long words. A long word needs a long straight run of cells, and the outer rows and columns are where those runs tend to begin or end. Trace the border first.
Hunt the rare letter, not the first one. A word that contains a J, Q, X, Z, K, W or V is easier to find by that letter than by its opening one: there are far fewer of them on the grid, and each one you find is a candidate to read outward from in every allowed direction.
Search the open ground. Once several words are marked, the remaining ones are hiding in the areas nothing crosses yet. Give the untouched patches your attention before re-reading rows you have already combed.
Look for doubled letters and fixed pairs. LL, OO, EE, TH and QU stand out at a glance. Find the pair, then check whether the rest of the word runs from it.
Scan one direction at a time. Run your eye along every row looking only for the word's first two letters, then down every column, then along the diagonals if the puzzle allows them. One direction per pass is faster than switching on every cell.
Read the endings. If words here can run backwards, an ending like ING, TION or ER is as good a handle as the start: spot it, then read back the other way.
Take the longest words first. They have the fewest possible positions, and marking them carves the grid into smaller regions for everything shorter.
Pause when you are stuck. Pause stops the clock. A fresh look after a minute away finds what a tired one keeps missing, and Shuffle gives you a new arrangement of the same words if you would rather start over.

What the words in this puzzle mean

ANGLE: The amount of turn between two lines meeting at a point.
AREA: How much surface a flat shape covers, counted in square units.
ASSOCIATIVE: The rule that regrouping does not change a sum or product: (2+3)+4 equals 2+(3+4).
CAPACITY: How much a container can hold.
CENTIMETER: A metric length, one hundredth of a metre.
COMMUTATIVE: The rule that order does not change a sum or product: 3 × 5 equals 5 × 3.
CUSTOMARY UNITS: The measures used in the United States — inches, feet, pounds, cups and gallons.
DIGIT: One of the ten symbols 0 to 9 that numbers are written with.
DIVISION: Sharing a total into equal groups.
FOOT: A customary length of twelve inches.
FRACTION: A number written as parts of a whole, such as three quarters.
GALLON: A customary measure of volume equal to four quarts.
GRAM: The basic metric unit of mass; a paperclip weighs about one.
INVERSE: An operation that undoes another — division is the inverse of multiplication.
MASS: How much matter something contains, measured in grams or kilograms.
METRIC UNITS: The base-ten measures used by most of the world — metres, grams and litres.
MULTIPLE: A number reached by multiplying: 15 is a multiple of 3 and of 5.
MULTIPLICATION: Adding equal groups together to find a total.
NUMBERLINE: A number line — a straight line with numbers marked in order, used for counting and comparing.
OUNCE: A small customary unit of weight; sixteen of them make a pound.
PERIMETER: The total distance around the edge of a shape.
PLACE VALUE: What a digit is worth because of where it sits: the 4 in 40 means four tens.
POUND: A customary unit of weight equal to sixteen ounces.
PROPERTIES: The rules numbers always follow, such as the commutative and associative properties.
QUADRILATERAL: Any flat shape with four straight sides.
RECTANGLE: A quadrilateral with four right angles and opposite sides equal.
RHOMBUS: A quadrilateral with four equal sides, like a pushed-over square.
WEIGHT: How heavy something is — how hard gravity pulls on it.
YARD: A customary length of three feet.

Third Grade Math Vocabulary Word Search Answer Key

Checking a finished sheet, or stuck on the last word? The Third Grade Math Vocabulary Word Search Answer Key marks all 29 hidden words in the grid and lists the row, column and direction each one starts from. It prints on its own sheet, so you can hand out the puzzle and keep the answers.

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