Free printable · Large print

St. Patrick’s Day word search

Sixteen words for March 17: shamrock and clover, a leprechaun with his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, Dublin and Limerick, the parade, the fiddle and tin whistle, and corned beef, cabbage and soda bread for supper.

Words read across, down and diagonally, left to right, on a 12 by 12 grid in large print. The letters you never circle spell the first line of an Irish blessing.

Play Cottage Word Search online

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 none read backward. The longest is Corned beef and the shortest is Parade, which hides best: look for it last.

About the words

St. Patrick’s Day is March 17, the traditional date of the death of Patrick, the fifth-century missionary who is the patron saint of Ireland. Irish communities abroad turned the day into a public celebration, and New York City’s parade dates from 1762.

Blarney: Blarney means smooth, flattering talk. It comes from the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in County Cork; kissing the stone is said to give the gift of the gab.
Cabbage: Cabbage keeps well through the winter and was a staple of Irish cooking for centuries, boiled with bacon or mashed into potatoes to make colcannon.
Clover: Clover leaves normally have three leaflets. A four-leaf clover is an uncommon variation, often said to turn up about once in several thousand plants, and finding one is counted as lucky.
Corned beef: Corned beef is beef cured in salt; the “corns” are the coarse grains of salt once used. Corned beef and cabbage is an Irish American dish. In Ireland the usual pairing was bacon and cabbage.
Dublin: Dublin is the capital of Ireland, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Liffey. Vikings founded a settlement there in the 800s.
Emerald: An emerald is the green variety of the mineral beryl, colored by traces of chromium or vanadium. It is the traditional birthstone for May.
Fiddle: A fiddle is a violin played in a folk style. It is one of the main instruments of Irish dance music, which includes jigs, reels and hornpipes.
Ireland: Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic, west of Great Britain. Its mild, rainy climate keeps the countryside green, hence the nickname the Emerald Isle.
Leprechaun: In Irish folklore a leprechaun is a small, solitary fairy who works as a shoemaker and hides a store of gold. Catch one, the stories say, and he must tell you where it is.
Limerick: Limerick is a city on the River Shannon in the west of Ireland. It shares its name with the five-line comic poem, though how the verse got the name is not certain.
Parade: St. Patrick’s Day parades began among the Irish abroad rather than in Ireland. Irish soldiers serving in the British army marched in New York City in 1762.
Pot of gold: Folklore puts a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Since a rainbow moves as you move, its end can never be reached, which makes it a safe hiding place.
Rainbow: A rainbow forms when sunlight is bent and reflected inside raindrops, which spreads the light into its colors. You see one with the sun behind you and rain in front.
Shamrock: A shamrock is a young clover with three leaflets. By tradition, St. Patrick used one to explain the Christian Trinity. The name comes from the Irish seamróg, little clover.
Soda bread: Irish soda bread is raised with baking soda and buttermilk instead of yeast. It became common in the 1800s, when baking soda reached Irish kitchens.
Tin whistle: The tin whistle, or penny whistle, is a small metal pipe with six finger holes. Cheap and easy to carry, it is a common first instrument in Irish music.

The hidden saying (no peeking until you have found every word): This is the opening line of a traditional Irish blessing that wishes a traveler an easy journey. Nobody knows who wrote it.

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

St. Patrick’s Day word search