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Cozy cabin word search

A winter evening at a log cabin in sixteen words: the woodstove and cast iron, the front porch and snowshoes, the flannel, the teakettle and a stack of board games.

One of the harder word searches here: words run in all eight directions, backwards and diagonally too, on a 12 by 12 grid in big print.

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Prints on US letter paper: the puzzle page, then the answer key on its own page (2 pages in all). In the print window, choose your printer, or Save as PDF to keep a copy.

Solving tips

Look for the rare letters first: a Z, Q, J, X or K is easy to spot in big print. Then circle the long words, which cross more of the grid. Every letter belongs to a word or to the hidden saying, so the uncircled letters left at the end are the saying, in order.

In this grid, 4 words read across, 4 words down and 8 words diagonally, and 9 of them read backward (right to left or bottom to top), so check both ends of a likely letter. The longest is Rocking chair and the shortest is Quilt, which hides best: look for it last.

About the words

Swedish and Finnish settlers brought log building to North America in the 1600s, and it spread across the frontier because all it needed was trees and an axe. Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin in Kentucky in 1809.

Antlers: Deer, elk and moose grow antlers of bone and shed them every year, then grow a new set. Animal horns, such as those on cattle, are permanent.
Board games: Checkers and backgammon are thousands of years old, and a deck of cards or a game board has long been the answer to a rainy or snowed-in day at a cabin.
Bunk beds: Bunk beds stack one sleeping space over another to save floor room. The idea comes from ships and barracks, and they are a cabin favorite when many guests arrive.
Cast iron: Cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens are made by pouring molten iron into a mold. Rubbed with oil and baked, the surface builds up a dark seasoning, and pans are often passed down for generations.
Chimney: A chimney carries smoke up and away from a fire. Chimney sweeps once climbed inside to scrape away soot, and the job is still done with long brushes today.
Firewood: Firewood burns best when it has been split and dried for months. Wood is sold by the cord, a stack measuring four feet by four feet by eight feet.
Flannel: Flannel is a soft cloth with a lightly brushed surface. It has been woven in Wales for centuries, first from wool, and is now commonly cotton.
Front porch: A front porch gives a house a shaded spot between indoors and the street. Before air conditioning, it was where many American families spent summer evenings and greeted passing neighbors.
Hearth: The hearth is the floor of a fireplace, often stone or brick, and by extension the heart of the home. The word is very old, and “hearth and home” has long meant family life.
Lantern: A lantern holds a flame inside glass or a pierced tin shell to shield it from wind. Two lanterns hung in Boston’s Old North Church in 1775 signaled the route of British troops.
Log cabin: A log cabin is built from stacked, notched logs with the gaps packed with clay or mortar. Swedish settlers in the Delaware Valley built some of the first in the 1600s.
Quilt: A quilt has three layers: a decorated top, a middle layer of batting and a backing, all stitched together. “Log Cabin” is a classic quilt pattern made of narrow strips around a center square.
Rocking chair: Rocking chairs appeared in North America in the 1700s, often made by adding curved rockers to an existing chair. By the 1800s they were a fixture of American porches and parlors.
Snowshoes: Snowshoes spread a person’s weight over a wide frame so they do not sink into deep snow. Indigenous peoples of northern North America perfected designs of wood and woven rawhide.
Teakettle: Iron kettles once hung from a hook over the hearth fire to boil water for tea. Modern ones often have a whistle in the spout that sounds when the water boils.
Woodstove: A woodstove is an enclosed iron or steel firebox that holds heat longer than an open fireplace. Benjamin Franklin designed a well-known improved fireplace in Pennsylvania in the 1740s.

The hidden saying (no peeking until you have found every word): This line of comfort was popularized by the song “Home! Sweet Home!” from the 1823 opera Clari, with words by John Howard Payne. It gained fresh fame in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

Prefer a screen? Cottage Word Search is the same kind of puzzle to play free in your browser, with hints and saved progress.

Cozy cabin word search