Nature's grandest cascades
Few sights match a great waterfall, and this word search gathers the most famous. You'll track down the legends — NIAGARA on the US–Canada border, VICTORIA Falls in Africa, the wide IGUAZU in South America, and the world's tallest, ANGEL Falls.
Each puzzle pulls a fresh selection from the list, so the river changes every time you play — gentle on Easy, and a Hard-mode plunge once the diagonals and backwards words appear.
Where the words come from
There's a whole vocabulary to a waterfall, and it's here. Watch the water PLUNGE and PLUMMET over the CLIFF in a roaring CASCADE, drop tier by TIER into the BASIN below, and send up a fine MIST and SPRAY — often with a RAINBOW in it. Feel the CURRENT and the RAPIDS, hear the ROAR of the TORRENT, and trace the FLOW over the curved HORSESHOE edge.
How a waterfall forms
Waterfalls are made by the slow power of a river. Where the water flows over a band of hard rock sitting on top of softer rock, the soft rock wears away faster, leaving a step for the water to tumble over. Over thousands of years that step eats backwards upstream, carving out a deep GORGE behind it — which is exactly what's happening at NIAGARA.
The most spectacular show off nature's scale: ANGEL Falls in Venezuela drops almost a kilometre, the tallest on Earth, while VICTORIA Falls is so huge and noisy that its local name means 'the smoke that thunders'. That makes a waterfalls word search a perfect partner to a topic on rivers and erosion.
Play, print or make your own
Play online, or print a PDF pack for a rivers or erosion lesson. Want a grid of just the world's famous falls, or the science words? Use our Make Your Own tool to choose them and print matching copies for the class.