Illinois word search word list
15 words, hand-picked to fit a 15×15 grid. Free to use in any puzzle you make, including ones you sell.
Runs in your browser — nothing you type leaves your computer. No sign-up. $19 once removes the PREVIEW cover mark; 30-day refund, no questions.
The button opens the free generator with this theme selected. It draws all 15 words into a single 15×15 puzzle. A list this size makes one puzzle, not a book — the theme picker is checkboxes, so tick a second list alongside this one and the generator will build as many different puzzles as the combined list allows.
The list
- Bears
- Bulls
- Cardinal
- Chicago
- Cubs
- Farmland
- Lincoln
- Loop
- Midway
- Oak
- Prairie
- Soybean
- Springfield
- Violet
- Willis
Copy freely. One per line or comma-separated pastes straight into the generator's "Your own list" box if you want to add or remove words.
Crossword clues for every word
The same list with a plain-language clue for each word — written for the crossword type, and free to use in a grid you build yourself. Copy the lines as they are (word — clue) into the generator's own-list box and it makes the crossword for you.
- Bears — Chicago's NFL football team
- Bulls — Chicago's NBA basketball team
- Cardinal — Bright red crested songbird
- Chicago — Illinois's largest city, on Lake Michigan
- Cubs — Chicago's National League baseball team
- Farmland — Fields of crops covering much of this flat state
- Lincoln — Nebraska's capital city; the 16th president also lends his name to Illinois's nickname
- Loop — Nickname for downtown Chicago's business district
- Midway — One of Chicago's two major airports
- Oak — Sturdy tree whose fruit is the acorn
- Prairie — Flat grassland after which this state is nicknamed
- Soybean — Major crop grown across the Midwest for oil and feed
- Springfield — Illinois's capital city
- Violet — Small purple woodland flower
- Willis — Renamed Chicago skyscraper, once called Sears Tower
A puzzle made from it
- BEARS
- BULLS
- CARDINAL
- CHICAGO
- CUBS
- FARMLAND
- LINCOLN
- LOOP
- MIDWAY
- OAK
- PRAIRIE
- SOYBEAN
- SPRINGFIELD
- VIOLET
- WILLIS
Medium difficulty: across, down and diagonals, nothing backwards. Every word appears exactly once — the generator checks the finished grid rather than assuming. Solutions are in the book, not on this page.
Turn it into a book
Puzzle Press makes the whole paperback for Amazon KDP — word search or criss-cross fill-in, this theme or several mixed, graded easy to hard if you like, solutions at the back, margins and page count to KDP's rules — then the cover. Free to use; free books have unmarked pages and a cover marked PREVIEW, and $19 once removes that.
Make an Illinois word search book freeMore word lists
All free the same way. The theme picker is checkboxes — tick more than one and the generator draws from the combined list.
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- Birdwatching (58)
- Flowers (51)
- Garden & Nature (68)
- Georgia (15)
- Indiana (13)
- Iowa (11)
- Kentucky (13)
- Hawaii (13)
- Idaho (13)