Snake Facts: Cobras, Pythons, Venom and Shedding Skin

Snakes are reptiles with no legs, no eyelids and no outer ears, yet they are among the most successful predators on Earth. This puzzle covers how they live: they slither on their scales, coil their bodies, shed their skin as they grow and smell the air with their forked tongue. Some, like the cobra, kill with venom; others, like the python, squeeze their prey.

It is one of the slowest puzzles on the site for players online. The words are short, they share letters like S, E and N, and five of them are diagonal.

Snake Vocabulary: 12 Words to Find

Words run across, up and down, and diagonally; 8 of the 12 read backwards. The longest word is Predator, with 8 letters.

Cobra: A venomous snake that spreads the ribs of its neck into a hood when it feels threatened.
Coil: To wind the body into rings. Snakes coil to rest, to strike or to squeeze their prey.
Predator: An animal that hunts and eats other animals.
Python: A large snake that kills its prey by coiling around it and squeezing, not with venom.
Reptile: A cold-blooded vertebrate with scaly skin, like a snake, lizard, turtle or crocodile.
Scales: The small, dry, overlapping plates that cover a snake's body. Snakes are not slimy.
Serpent: An old or poetic word for a snake, especially a large one.
Shed: To lose an outer layer. Snakes shed their whole skin, often in one piece, as they grow.
Slither: To move smoothly by twisting the body from side to side, the way a snake does.
Snake: A legless reptile with scaly skin, no eyelids and a forked tongue.
Tongue: A snake uses its forked tongue to smell, collecting scents from the air.
Venom: A poison injected by a bite or sting, as some snakes do through their fangs.

How to Solve the Snake Word Search

The letters S, E and N are everywhere here, so start with the rare ones: "venom" has the only V and M, "tongue" the only G, "python" the only Y. "Cobra" and "coil" both start with CO. "Snake", "coil" and "predator" all run upward.

How Long the Snake Word Search Takes

5 players have solved this puzzle on their first try, and they took a median of 7 minutes. Half of them finished between 4 minutes 15 seconds and 10 minutes 35 seconds. None of them needed a hint.

Times measured on Word Search Free, online play only, first attempt per player. Updated 2026-10-15.

Snake Lesson Ideas for Science Class

Ask students to explain the difference between venomous and constricting snakes, using the cobra and the python.
Look at a shed snakeskin, or a picture of one, and talk about why snakes shed.
Bust a myth: are snakes slimy? No, their scales are dry.