Nature for Hangman 🌿

Clues for every answer

A one-line clue for every answer, easy to hard. They're the same clues the game's 💡 Hint shows, so you can read them out when you run your own game.

Tree

A plant, often long-lived, whose trunk, typically woody, usually holds up branches and leaves.

River

A natural stream of fresh water flowing on land towards an ocean or lake at a lower level.

Flower

Also called a blossom or bloom, it is a plant's reproductive part; its petals often attract pollinators.

Stone

A hard earthen material that forms rocks; it is also the hard centre of some fruits, like a cherry.

Cloud

A visible mass of tiny droplets or ice crystals, mostly water, hanging in the atmosphere.

Rain

Water drops falling from the sky; a very light sprinkle is drizzle and a long, heavy one a downpour.

Wind

The natural movement of air across a planet's surface, from gentle local breezes to vast global flows.

Leaf

A mostly green, usually flat part growing from a plant's stem, specialised for photosynthesis.

Root

The plant part, most often under the soil, that anchors it and takes in water and nutrients.

Fruit

The seed-bearing part of a flowering plant; to a botanist, tomatoes and nuts count too.

Lake

Water in a basin surrounded by land, apart from the ocean; most are fresh and typically bigger than ponds.

Beach

Land beside a body of water made of loose bits like sand, pebbles or shells; most are on coasts.

Forest

An ecosystem with a dense community of trees; these cover about 31 percent of the world's land.

Mountain

A raised part of a planet's surface, usually higher than a hill, generally with steep sides.

Desert

A landscape where little rain or snow falls; much of the icy polar regions counts as one too.

Ocean

The body of salt water covering about 70.8% of Earth and holding 97% of its water.

Meadow

An open field of grasses, herbs and other non-woody plants, often created for making hay.

Pebble

A mostly smooth bit of rock 4 to 64 mm across: bigger than a granule, smaller than a cobble.

Sunset

The moment the top edge of the solar disc vanishes below the horizon, about once every 24 hours except near the poles.

Valley

A long, low area, often between hills or mountains, typically with a river or stream running along it.

Waterfall

A point in a river or stream where the flow drops over a vertical edge or a series of steep drops.

Glacier

A lasting mass of ice formed on land from snow built up over many years; it keeps moving under its own weight.

Volcano

An opening in a planet's crust where hot lava, ash and gases escape from a magma chamber below.

Canyon

A deep cleft between cliffs, carved by a river over a very long time; also called a gorge or chasm.

Estuary

A partly enclosed coastal body of water where fresh water from rivers mixes with salt water from the sea.

Mangrove

A shrub or tree that grows mainly in salty coastal water, with a complex root system to cope.

Savanna

A mixed woodland and grassland where the tree canopy stays open, letting light reach a grassy layer below.

Tundra

A cold biome where tree growth is held back; plants are mostly dwarf shrubs, grasses, mosses and lichens.

Plateau

An area of flat highland raised sharply above its surroundings on at least one side; also called a tableland.

Lagoon

A shallow body of water cut off from a larger one by a narrow strip such as a reef or barrier island.

Coral Reef

An underwater ecosystem built by colonies of polyps, usually tiny; some call them rainforests of the sea.

Wetland

An ecosystem whose ground is flooded or soaked, all the time or only seasonally; marshes and swamps are kinds.

Fjord

A long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides, carved by a former glacier and flooded; Norway has nearly 1,200.

Delta

A landform, typically triangular, built from sediment where a river meets slow water; named after a Greek letter.

Peninsula

Land joined to the mainland on only one side and mostly surrounded by water; its name means 'almost island'.

Thunder

The noise made when lightning heats air so fast that it expands and sends out a shock wave.

Tropical

Of the equatorial region between about 23 degrees north and 23 degrees south; also, hot and humid.

Rainforest

Humid woodland with a closed, unbroken canopy of trees and no wildfire; it can be tropical or temperate.

Stalactite

A mineral formation hanging from a cave ceiling; its name comes from the Greek for 'dripping'.

Stalagmite

A rock formation that rises from a cave floor, built up from material dripping off the ceiling.

Biodiversity

The variability of life on Earth, from genes to species; it is richer in the warm tropics.

Ecosystem

Living things interacting with their surroundings, all linked together by nutrient cycles and energy flows.

Deforestation

Clearing away a stand of trees so the land can be used for farms, ranches or towns; farming causes most of it.

Sustainability

The ability to keep going for a long time, so the environment, economy and society can all last.

Phototropism

Growth in response to light; most plant shoots grow towards it, helped by a hormone called auxin.

Pollination

Moving tiny grains from a plant's anther to a stigma, done by insects such as bees, by birds, bats, wind or water.

Hibernation

Minimal activity that some animals enter, with low body temperature and slow breathing, mostly to last the winter.

Mimicry

When a living thing evolves to resemble something else, as a harmless hoverfly resembles a wasp.

Symbiosis

Any close, long-term interaction between two different species: 'the living together of unlike organisms'.

Decomposition

The breaking down of dead organic matter into simpler things, often by microbes, with help from earthworms.

Stratification

The forming of layers, as in sedimentary rock, or a lake's warm top water sitting over colder water below.

Permafrost

Ground that stays below 0 °C for two years or more; large areas of Alaska, Canada and Siberia have it.

Bioluminescence

Light made by living things, usually using a substance called luciferin, as in fireflies and some fungi.

Desertification

Fertile land gradually wearing down into dry, arid land through drought, overgrazing and loss of plants.

Afforestation

Establishing new trees where there was no recent tree cover, rather than regrowing ones that were lost.

Archipelago

A chain, cluster or collection of islands; Scotland's 700-plus islands around its mainland form one.

Chlorophyll

The green pigment in plants and algae that lets them absorb energy from light; its name means 'pale green leaf'.

Transpiration

Water moving through a plant and evaporating from parts above ground, such as its leaves, stems and flowers.

Eutrophication

Nutrients building up in a lake or river, so plants and algae grow so much that oxygen may run low; fertiliser runoff can cause it.

Microclimate

Local air conditions over a patch from a few metres to a few kilometres across that differ from the area around it.