Free printable rebus puzzles
Updated with some hard new rebus puzzles with answers have been added (sheet 27).
These rebus puzzles are a stimulating activity for higher-level ESL learners. They get students thinking laterally and provide enjoyable mental exercise.
Initially, students may find them quite hard but once they get the idea of them they find them much easier. It is best to introduce the concept before handing out the rebus puzzles. Give examples on the board like – CHmadeINA (made in China), IN VADERS (space invaders), and (I love you) by drawing an eye, a heart, and the letter U.
You may also need to give clues for some of the harder ones and you can also make it a group or class exercise and have students work together. Sometimes it works well to draw the 12 blank rectangles on the board and if a student or team has an answer they can run up and write there themselves.
If you like these puzzles, you will for sure want to see the new printable brain teasers with answers pages.
The answers for sheet 1 above are as follows –
1 – For once in my life (four ones in my life)
2 – Forget it
3 – Try to understand
4 – Travel overseas or overseas travel
5 – Breakfast
6 – Downtown
7 – Eyeshadow
8 – Stepfather
9 – Once upon a time
10 – Potatoes (pot 8 O’s)
11 – 3D movie
12 – Top secret
Rebus puzzle definition
What’s a rebus puzzle? Well, a rebus is a representation of words, phrases, sounds or syllables by images of objects, letters, numbers or symbols. More simply, the pictures or symbols of a rebus represent and express sounds and words.
The word rebus come from the Latin expression – “Non verbis, sed rebus”. This means – Not by words but by things. A basic example is the combination of the pictures of an eye, a heart, a sun, and a flower to mean – I love sunflowers.
Rebuses have been around for a long time. During medieval times they were used on coats of arms by noblemen and knights to show family names. People often used pictures of objects that sounded similar to their family names. They were also used on other personal objects and buildings to show ownership. This helped illiterate people know to who things belonged.
Going further back, Ancient Egyptian writing or hieroglyphs were also read in a rebus style fashion.
The use of rebuses as puzzles for a fun activity became popular in France during the 16th century before spreading further around Europe. Not long after during the Edo period they also came into use in Japan.
Rebus puzzle sheet 2 solutions
1 – Trip around the world or around the world trip
2 – Lemonade
3 – Long legs
4 – advice
5 – Spaceman
6 – Big bad wolf
7 – Many thanks or thanks a lot
8 – Download
9 – No idea
10 – Comfortable
11 – Forty years
12 – Excuse me
Rebus puzzle sheet 3 solutions
1 – Forehead
2 – Good looking
3 – Waterfall
4 – Wake up
5 – Tuna fish
6 – Foreign language
7 – Seahorse
8 – Middle-aged
9 – Broken heart
10 – Seesaw
11 – Miss you or missing you
12 – Teabag
Rebus puzzle sheet 4 solutions
1 – Four-wheel drive
2 – Apple pie
3 – Up to you
4 – Robin Hood
5 – Design
6 – Engineer
7 – Vegetables
8 – Afternoon tea
9 – Camping overnight
10 – Time to go
11 – Long time no see
12 – Polite
Rebus puzzle worksheet 5 solutions
1 – Fishing hook
2 – Farm animal/Animal farm
3 – Touchdown
4 – Honeybee
5 – Cornerstone
6 – Love at first sight
7 – Freeze over
8 – Caveman/Mancave
9 – Catwalk
10 – Hiking in the woods (High king)
11 – Sandbox
12 – Lovebirds
Rebus Puzzle printable 6 answers
1 – Crossbow
2 – Eggs over easy
3 – Coffee break
4 – Multiple choice
5 – Come into season
6 – I’ll get over it
7 – Raincheck
8 – I’m bigger than you
9 – Illegal (ill eagle)
10 – Double agent
11 – Rock n roll
12 – Good afternoon
Rebus puzzle worksheet 7 answers
1 – Look me in the eye
2- Electric blanket
3 – Banknote
4 – One foot in the door
5- Bookcase
6 – Five kilograms overweight
7 – Highway
8 – Way to go
9 – Toothpick
10 – Underdogs
11 – Heartbeat
12 – Light rain
Rebus puzzles free 8 solutions
1 – Sunroof
2 – X-ray
3 – Doghouse
4 – Excuse me
5 – French fry/French fries
6 – Pardon me
7 – Mousetrap
8 – Turnip
9 – Phone numbers
10 – Uproar
11 – Thunderstorm
12 – Weekend
Hard rebus puzzles 9 (places) answers
1 – Cuba
2 -Eiffel Tower
3 – Supermarket
4 – Laundromat
5 – Angkor Wat
6 – Tunnel
7 – Iran
8 – Boxing ring
9 – Mount Rushmore
10 – Finland
11 – Micronesia
12 – Hairdresser
Tricky rebus puzzles 10 answers
1 – Microscope
2 – One night stand
3 – Eye sockets
4 – Houseplant
5 – Neighbourhood
6 – Failure
7 – Headquarters
8 – Blanket
9 – Cut corners
10 – Cocktail
11 – Tennis shoes
12 – Summary
Rebus puzzles 11 answers
1 – Teacup
2 – Fly screen
3 – Metaphor
4 – Leftover/Turnover
5 – Bad influence
6 – Backhand
7 – Sunken
8 – Wise guy
9 – Stay indoors
10 – Crystallise/Crystallize
11 – Elbow
12 – New Zealand
Rebus puzzles 12 answers
1 – Unbroken
2 – Highchair
3 – Foul language
4 – Summer
5 – Cattle (cat ill)
6 – Four seasons
7 – Mutate
8 – Coloring/ For coloring
9 – Indian food
10 – The underdog
11 – The birds and the bees
12 – Tripod.
Rebus puzzles 13 answers
1 – Pecan nuts
2 – Seasoning
3 – Karaoke (carry ok)
4 – Easel
5 – Horsefly
6 – Shotgun
7 – Discount
8 – Shoplift
9 – Sidekicks
10 – Gum tree
11 – Keep your eyes on the ball
12 – Fortunate
Rebus puzzles 14 answers
1 – Shake a leg
2 – Hot under the collar
3 – Sweet tooth
4 – An old hand
5 – A bone to pick
6 – To be in a pickle
7 – Fingers crossed
8 – See eye to eye
9 – Backburner
10 – Sixth sense
11 – Breaking point
12 – On second thought
Rebus puzzles 15 answers
1 – Word of mouth
2 – A chain of events
3 – Sleep on it
4 – Jockey for position
5 – Hit the hay
6 – All in a days work
7 – Door to door
8 – Draw blood
9 – A flash in the pan
10 – A barrel of laughs
11 – Two ships passing in the night
12 – Safe and sound
Rebus puzzles 16 answers
1 – Holy man
2 – Be on time
3 – Trillion
4 – Peasants
5 – Backpedal
6 – Forecast
7 – Noodles
8 – Surface
9 – Launder money
10 – Peace on earth
11 – Hand in hand
12 – Beetroot
Rebus puzzles 17 answers
1 – India (In D ah)
2 – Lunatics
3 – Mayonnaise
4 -Elbows
5 – Administrator
6 – Entree
7 – Leftovers
8 – Domino
9 – Rampant
10 – Cold beer
11 – Canine
12 – July (jewel eye)
Rebus puzzles 18 answers
1 – Capacitator
2 – Integrate
3 – Noisy
4 – No one to call
5 – Fishwife
6 – Escape
7 – Seasoning
8 – Spacesuit
9 – Wide awake
10 – Limestone
11 – Snowed
12 – Canoe
Rebus puzzles 19 answers
1 -Ninjas
2 – Open
3 – Tinfoil
4 – Vetoed
5 – Snow/Snot
6 -Sequel (Sea quill)
7 -Teepees
8 – Rainbow
9 – Spearhead
10 – Wreath (W + reef)
11 – Reptiles
12 – Coconut palm
Rebus puzzles 20 answers
1 – Justice
2 – Careers (car ears)
3 – Eyeliner
4 – Shorten
5 – Infantry (in fan tree)
6 – Exit
7 – Tyrant (tire/tyre ant)
8 – Tender
9 – Shelf life
10 – Everything’s all right
11 – Relieves (RE leaves)
12 – Defense (D fence)
Rebus puzzles 21 answers
1 – Warm up
2 – Mess around
3 – Bite back
4 – Get into
5 – Blow up
6 – Die down
7 – Pop up
8 – Care for
9 – Catch on
10 – Peel away
11 – Bear with
12 – Aim at
Rebus puzzles 22 answers
1 – Badger
2 – Tombstone
3 – Mountaineer
4 – Lobster (lob + star)
5 – Millimeters
6 – Canine (K9)
7 – Checkpoint
8 – Lilypad
9 – Household
10 – Subject
11 – Express
12 – Beacon
Hard rebus puzzles 23 answers
1 – Ceramic
2 – Oasis
3 – Forage (four+rage)
4 – Racketeers (rack+e+tears)
5 – Diploma
6 – Ingrown nail
7 – Corrode
8 – Policy
9 – Kilometer
10 – Cashew
11 – Romantic
12 – Generate/Generating
Hard rebus puzzles 24 answers
1 – Sweatbox
2 – Passerby
3 – Warplanes (warp+lanes)
4 – Emergency
5 – Saturn
6 – Discoveries
7 – Intermediate
8 – Publicant
9 – Dragon
10 – Jasmine tea
11 – Infinity
12 – Advanced
Rebus puzzle game 25 answers
1 – I forget
2 – Heat
3 – Prologue
4 – Informal
5 – Pirate
6 – coincides
7 – Catacomb
8 – Ghostwriter/ Ghostrider
9 – Streetlight
10 -Drainpipe
11 – Footnote/Soul music
12 – Jungle
Rebus puzzle game 26 answers
1 – Empty
2 – Ballerina
3 – Straw hat
4 – Backpacking
5 – Curtain
6 – Photo finish
7 – Patent
8 – Please
9 – Handrail/Handrails
10 -Resound
11 – Chills
12 – Government
Rebus puzzles 27 answers
1 – Coming soon!
2 –
3 –
4 –
5 –
6 –
7 –
8 –
9 –
10 –
11 –
12 –