How to Play Charades: Rules, Modes and Words

Charades has survived every new console and streaming service for one simple reason: the same word can be passed along in several different ways. If you can’t draw, you act. If you’d rather not perform, you describe. If you can carry a tune, you hum. Everyone at the table finds a role, from grandparents to teenagers.

What is charades, and why does it work?

Two or more teams compete. In each turn, one player tries to get a secret word or title across to their own team before the timer runs out. The catch is that the word itself is off limits: you can only show it, explain around it, sketch it or hum it.

It isn’t a trivia game. The team that wins is not the one that knows the most, but the one that tunes in fastest to how its clue-giver thinks. That is why charades works with a mixed crowd where a few people know each other well and others have just met.

How to play charades in five steps

1. 01Split into teams.Two teams is enough. With fewer than four people, skip teams and play in a circle where everyone guesses for everyone.
2. 02Draw a word.Use slips of paper from a bowl, a deck of cards or a phone. Decide before each turn which mode you are playing: acting, describing, drawing or humming.
3. 03Start the clock.60 seconds is the classic. For drawing, allow 90 seconds, since the paper slows things down.
4. 04Give the clues.Not allowed: saying the word, any part of it, a word that rhymes with it, spelling it, or saying it in another language.
5. 05Keep score.Every correct guess is a point. Pass the turn to the other team and keep going until everyone has had a go, or until you hit the score you agreed on.

Acting: the classic charades mode

Acting is what most people picture when they hear “charades”. No sounds, no words, no mouthing. Only your body. It is also the mode that produces the stories people still bring up years later.

The standard charades hand signals

• Movie. Crank an old-fashioned film camera next to your head.
• Book. Hold your palms together, then open them like a book.
• TV show. Draw a rectangle in the air with both index fingers.
• Song. Open your mouth and sweep a hand outward, as if singing (silently).
• Number of words. Hold up that many fingers, then hold up fingers again to show which word you are on.
• Syllables. Lay fingers on your forearm: two fingers means the second syllable.
• Sounds like. Tug your earlobe, then act out a word that rhymes.
• Small word. Pinch your thumb and index finger close together for “a”, “the” or “of”.
• The whole thing. Sweep your arms in a big circle to say “now the whole title”.

• Break it into parts. If the whole word won’t come, split it. “Sunglasses” is two separate gestures.
• Keep moving. The moment you stop to think, your team loses the thread. Stay in motion, even in the wrong direction.
• Point at the close guesser. When someone is near, point at them and wave them on. It tells the rest of the team which track to follow.

Describing: talk all you want, just never say the word

Describing is the most underrated mode. It looks easier than acting, then it turns out to be harder to do cleanly, because the word keeps trying to slip out. If you have played Taboo, you know the feeling.

• Go from general to specific. Category first, then what it does, then the detail.
• Use opposites. “Not hot, the other one” lands faster than three sentences of explanation.
• Avoid the root. You can’t describe “hair dryer” as “the thing you dry your hair with”. That is the most common rule break.
• Watch your team. If they guess the same thing twice, change direction instead of repeating yourself louder.

Drawing: the mode that splits the room

Drawing is the Pictionary side of charades. No letters, no numbers, no symbols like a dollar sign. That is what makes it funny: the people who draw well tend to draw too carefully, and the clock beats them.

• Sketch, don’t paint. Five lines beat a shaded portrait every time.
• Draw a scene. An object on its own is ambiguous. In a situation it becomes obvious.
• Circle what matters. A ring around one part says “look here”.
• Don’t erase. Start fresh next to it. Erasing eats half your turn.

Humming: the fourth mode for music lovers

Humming is the newest addition in most groups and often the loudest. You get melody only: no lyrics, no titles, no la-la-la that happens to match the words. Theme songs and singalongs work best, because everyone has heard them a hundred times.

How to set up charades teams

A good team split matters more than the word list. Two lopsided teams make for a long, quiet evening.

• Mix the couples. Partners and best friends on the same team guess each other’s clues too fast. Split them up and the game gets fairer and funnier.
• Mix the ages. One teenager and one grandparent per team covers both pop culture and the classics.
• Three to six per team. Fewer and the guessing dries up. More and half the team just watches.
• Ten or more people. Make three teams, or appoint one person as host who runs the clock and settles arguments.
• Only three players. Play in a circle. The clue-giver scores a point for every word guessed, and so does the person who guessed it.

Charades scoring that keeps the game alive

Most home games never see a game board. This scoring works on the back of a receipt and keeps the second half as tense as the first.

How to play charades without cards

The usual problem is not that nobody knows the rules. It is that the box is in the attic, the sand timer went missing two moves ago, or everyone has memorized the cards.

If you want lists to copy, there are 1,000+ charades ideas by topic and a separate list of charades words at three difficulty levels.

The four most common mistakes

1. 01Rounds that run too long.Past 60 seconds, the people watching get bored. Short turns, quick handoffs.
2. 02One mode all night.Three hours of acting wears a group out. Switch modes every round.
3. 03Hard words too early.The first round should always be easy, or people lose interest before they warm up.
4. 04Nobody in charge.You need one person who runs the clock and makes the call on disputes. Otherwise every word turns into a debate.

Acting, describing, humming and thousands of words in one place. No sand timer, no hunting for cards.

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Frequently asked questions