150+ Coolest Charades Words Game Ideas

Charades is a game that most of us grew up playing in school when a teacher would take leave or when we went over to our friends’ birthday parties. It’s a game filled with nostalgia and fun. And we believe it’s time for it to make a comeback into your and our lives. Charades is a game for all ages and genders, it provides a great past time and can even lead to unforgettable memories and inside jokes! Charades was a popular game in France in the 18^th century in which they used literary ways to describe riddles. They would describe each word through poetry to be able to come to an answer. In the 19^th century, they started acting out the riddles and so today’s charade was born. Soon this game spread all over the world and into our lives.

Some argue that Charade is one of the most popular games that can put your friends’ phones away for a night. Consisting of interesting and playful charades words, one can find hundreds of charade word ideas that can surely keep your game night rolling till the sun comes up.

Whether you have seen this game on that very popular Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on TV or it has been your family’s favorite thing to do for Halloween parties, this word guessing game never fails to disappoint. Charades is the perfect way to kill time and have a good time with your friends at the same time.

It can also be played to check out your friends’ dramatic abilities and if they will be able to use the right gestures and notions to make sure that their team is able to reach the winner’s stand.

How to Play Charades Game

Charades is a very easy game to play and enjoy. Just like most games, there are three stages of playing charades. Gathering the equipment needed to play it, setting up the game so it’s ready to be played and deciding on or making yourself familiar with the rules of playing it. Once all of these are covered, you can begin the game.

Required Charades Game Equipment

You only need a few things to play the game of charades. These are listed below:

• A few papers that can be cut into small pieces or a pad of memo notes and a pen.
• Two baskets or bowls to hold each team’s written chits.
• A stopwatch to time each member’s performance. The stopwatch in your smartphone can also be used.
• A notepad for keeping score.

How to Setup a Charades Game

 To set up the game, follow the given steps:

• Divide the group into two teams, with an equal number of players in each team.
• Each team should get together with their team members and decide on 10-15 challenges, write these down on separate, small pieces of paper and gather all these in a bowl or basket.
• Pick which team goes first by tossing a coin or by any other means.
• The team members from the chosen team should pick one player from their team to go first.

Rules to Play the Charades Game

Charades is fairly easy to play the game as it requires minimal equipment and can be played with as little as two people. The following are the few rules you have to follow while playing charades.

Rules for choosing what to write on the slips:

• Each team should write down the names of any movie, TV show or book’s title
• No team should pick a title with more than five words, so every word can be covered in the given time.
• No team should write down a title in another language
• The team should only write down titles that at least three of the team members have heard of before.

Rules for playing the game:

• The team that is supposed to go second should let the chosen team member pick a chit of paper from their bowl of chits.
• Now the chosen team member should act out whatever is written on the chitin a specified amount of time e.g. forty seconds or one minute.
• The actor should follow the pre-decided signs for specifying languages or the number of words in the title.
• The actor should not use words and only use hand gestures to convey the message.

Variations of Charades Game

Although it’s fun to play plain and simple charades, adding some twists to it by using these variations can make the game even more interesting and fun.

• Telephone Charades

You can combine the classic telephone or Chinese whisper game with charades. Divide up into more than 2 teams, or play individually. All the players if you’re playing individually or one player from each team should stand facing the wall.

The first player or team member should pick out a slip from the basket and act out the word to only the player standing next to him/her. The second player should then act out his/her interpretation of what the first one acted out. And so on. The last player should announce what he thinks was written on the slip and then you can compare how much the word changed by looking at the chosen slip!

• Speed Charades:

This variation makes taking points a race against time. Keep the given time to a small value, like 20 seconds or so. Each team member should act out their given word in this given time. To make the game even more interesting, you can add five seconds to each team’s given time if they guessed right on their last turn and cut five seconds from their time if they lost their last turn.

• Dumb Charades

This is the classic way of playing charades. By just using your hands and not speaking at all, you are supposed to act out whatever word or phrase you’re given. As quickly as you can.

• Themed Charades

To make it easier for each team to think of words and titles, or to make it easier for the people to guess, you can play a themed charades game. This way you can choose a theme that all players know about and make it less hard for everyone.

• Couple Charades

If you’re at a couple’s exclusive party or just back from a double date with your friends, you can play charades by dividing into couples instead of teams of random people. Each couple should follow the given rules and try to get as many points as possible to beat the other couples!

• Reverse Charades

In this game, the odds are reversed. One person guesses the word while the rest of the team members act it out. The chosen player picks up a chit and holds it above his head for everyone but him to see. The rest of the time has a given amount of time to act out the word or phrase given on the note while he/she tries to guess.

Easy Charades Words

To start off the game you can use these easy words so even the people who’ve never played before can get a hang of it:

Charades Word Ideas Generators

• Charades Pro 

This generator is easy to use and can be used online. You just have to go on their website and click on one of the options available to generate a word quickly and effectively. It only gives you one word at a time, however, instead of a list of words.

• Word Generator

This generator can be used for multiple games including charades, such as Pictionary and even to generate questions to ask when meeting someone new. To use this generator you have to pick charades from the left tab and the level of difficulty from the right tab and you’re provided with the perfect word! You can even search for movies or names of celebrities to use as challenges.

• Get Charades Ideas

This generator not only gives you single words but also names of famous people, movie titles and book titles, etc. it is useful to use to search for ideas as well as words. To use this generator, you just have to open the website! An idea will be displayed before you as soon as you open it. You don’t even have to search unless you’re looking for something specific. You can also include multiple categories at the same time while searching.

Hard Charades Words

To really set the stakes high, you can use the following words in your game:

How to Act & Win Charades Game

Clues to Guess Main Charade Topics

• A book: put your hands together like when you clap and slowly pull them apart as if to show like you’re opening a book.
• A movie: pretend to use a video camera.
• A television series: you can draw a square in the air with two antennas at the top to show a TV.
• A location: you can act out a specific way that the people from there act or a famous or known object that belongs to that location.
• A person: stand with your hands on your hips to show that you are the object you’re acting out.
• A song: dramatically sing into an imaginary microphone.
• A famous quote: make air quotes.
• Another language: you can pre-decide to make holding up a specific finger or making a specific sigh with your hands as an indicator of a chosen language.

Gestures to Guess Charade Words 

• Indicate the number of words by holding up that number of fingers.
• Then hold up fingers to indicate which word in the title you’re describing.
• Indicate the number of letters in the picked word by holding up your fingers.
• Indicate the syllables in the word by holding up your fingers.
• You can hold up the index and middle fingers and use the index finger of the other hand horizontally to make an H.

Signals to Hint Letters & Vowels

Make the shape of the letters or vowels with your hands:

• Join both index fingers at the tip to make an A and turn that shape over to indicate a V.
• Use your index finger and thumb to make an L by keeping them far apart or make an O by touching them by the tips.
• You can make an I by holding up one finger of pointing to your eyes.
• You can use the thumb and index finger to make a U.
• You can hold three fingers sideways to make an E.

Clues to Give Instructions

• Keep indicators for being right like thumbs up or thumbs down when your team is guessing wrong.
• When the title involves the word cold or something similar, act like your shivering by wrapping your arms around yourself and shaking.
• When the title has a warm word in it, act like you’re fanning yourself with our hand or wiping sweat off your forehead.
• If the title is talking about the world or universe then extend your arms as far out as you can and flay them around to point out space around you.
• If the title has the word love or attraction in it then point towards your heart or make a heart using the index fingers and the thumbs of both your hands.

Charade Ideas for Kids

This a game that is perfect for sleepovers or birthday parties for kids. Use these examples to kick start the game for your children and their friends.

Online Charades Game Apps to be Played

• Charades

This application is light on your storage yet works perfectly well and fast to give you the ultimate charades experience. It uses the concept of reverse charades.

• Heads Up

Although this app is a little hefty, it is the most famous app used for playing charades. It even featured on The Ellen Show! This game allows you to choose from a multitude of categories and also uses the idea of reverse charades. There is also a recording option so you can record your friends doing silly things!

• Guess Up

Much like heads up, you use this app by picking a category and then letting your friends act out something for you to guess. If you guess right you flip the phone forwards to record a point and backward if you don’t guess right. This is also a great app to use, despite it not being as known.

Charade Ideas for Adults

A game of charades is, even more, entertaining if played with friends as all levels and types of words and phrases can be included in it, like the following: