The complete 200-word list is below, eight categories of 25, easy animals through hard abstract ideas, free to read and free to print. Prefer a ready-made set with no copying and pasting? The charades generator prints cards straight from these categories, or any list you type in yourself, so there’s no copying and pasting required either way.
The 200 words
Animals
Penguin, octopus, kangaroo, sloth, flamingo, crab, giraffe, hedgehog, elephant, gorilla, dolphin, owl, chameleon, platypus, peacock, walrus, koala, cheetah, ostrich, jellyfish, scorpion, raccoon, armadillo, toucan, seahorse.
Everyday actions
Brushing teeth, parallel parking, changing a tyre, taking a selfie, tying shoelaces, folding laundry, riding a bike, blowing up a balloon, texting while walking, opening a jar, sneezing, yawning, shivering in the cold, waiting for a bus, eating spaghetti, ironing a shirt, mowing the lawn, walking a dog, fishing, painting a wall, vacuuming, washing dishes, applying sunscreen, changing a lightbulb, juggling.
Jobs
Firefighter, dentist, barista, air traffic controller, plumber, chef, teacher, lifeguard, hairdresser, mechanic, pilot, surgeon, librarian, electrician, photographer, farmer, judge, tailor, veterinarian, referee, astronaut, journalist, beekeeper, locksmith, translator.
Movies
Titanic, Frozen, Jaws, Rocky, Shrek, Cast Away, Inception, Jumanji, Elf, Up, Toy Story, Jurassic Park, Home Alone, The Lion King, Finding Nemo, Star Wars, Grease, Ghostbusters, Moana, E.T., The Matrix, Avatar, Aladdin, Twister, Encanto.
Books and stories
Charlotte’s Web, Moby Dick, Little Women, The Hobbit, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, The Jungle Book, Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables, Frankenstein, Dracula, A Christmas Carol, The Secret Garden, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Winnie the Pooh, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Tortoise and the Hare, Cinderella.
Songs
Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat, Old MacDonald Had a Farm, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Here Comes the Bride, Auld Lang Syne, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, London Bridge Is Falling Down, Itsy Bitsy Spider, The Wheels on the Bus, If You’re Happy and You Know It, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Pop Goes the Weasel, This Old Man, Frère Jacques, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Hickory Dickory Dock, Ring Around the Rosie, Yankee Doodle, The Star-Spangled Banner, Happy Days Are Here Again, Singin’ in the Rain.
Kids’ easy 25
Cat, dog, jump, sleep, eat, dance, swim, fly, cry, laugh, run, clap, wave, hop, spin, crawl, drink, sing, read, drive, cook, frog, monkey, bunny, robot.
Adults’ hard 25
Procrastination, jet lag, writer’s block, déjà vu, small talk, imposter syndrome, autopilot, muscle memory, culture shock, midlife crisis, bucket list, comfort zone, information overload, analysis paralysis, gut feeling, cabin fever, buyer’s remorse, brain freeze, sticker shock, decision fatigue, spring cleaning, moving day, jury duty, tax season, networking event.
Easy, medium or hard, how to tell before you write the card
| Level | The test | Five examples |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | One visible physical action, actable in a single clear gesture | Jump, sneezing, riding a bike, juggling, brushing teeth |
| Medium | Needs a two-step mime, an action plus a prop or context | Parallel parking, taking a selfie, changing a lightbulb, ironing a shirt, beekeeper |
| Hard | Abstract or idiomatic, no direct physical action exists | Déjà vu, writer’s block, imposter syndrome, analysis paralysis, comfort zone |
Sort any word you’re adding yourself against this table before you write the card, it’s a better guide than guessing by instinct alone. Mixing all three levels into one deck, rather than sorting them into separate piles, usually plays better for a mixed-age or mixed-confidence group, everyone gets an easy win occasionally and a genuine challenge occasionally, rather than one player getting stuck with every hard card in a row. If you’re running a more competitive game, sorting by level and letting each team draw only from an agreed tier keeps the difficulty even across both sides.
How to play charades
Split into two teams of any size, as long as both sides are roughly even. One player from the acting team picks a card and mimes it out using only gestures and the hand signals below, no talking, no mouthing words, and no pointing at real objects in the room. Set a clock, 60 seconds is standard for a fast-moving party, 90 seconds gives more breathing room for kids or a mixed-ability group, and agree the time before the first turn so it stays consistent. Teammates call out guesses until time runs out or someone lands it, a correct guess before time expires scores a point for the acting team, and the next round rotates to the other team with a new actor.
If a team can’t get it before time runs out, the standard call is to either let the other team steal with a single guess once the clock hits zero, or simply move the card to the bottom of the pile for a later round, agree which house rule you’re using before you start, since both are common and neither is more “correct” than the other. Keep a simple tally, one point per correct guess is plenty for most parties, and there’s no need for a running scoreboard unless the group specifically wants one.
Common charades disputes and how to settle them
A handful of arguments come up in almost every game, and all of them are avoidable if the rule is agreed before the first card is drawn rather than mid-argument.
- “Was that mouthing a word?” Agree in advance whether silent mouthing counts as talking (most house rules say it does, and it’s disallowed).
- “Can you act out individual letters?” Standard charades doesn’t spell words with gestures, it’s whole-word or whole-phrase miming plus the syllable and “sounds like” signals above, not a letter-by-letter alphabet.
- “Does pointing at a real object count?” No, under the standard rules, the actor can gesture toward where an object would be, but not point at an actual chair, door or person in the room and use it directly.
- “The team guessed it after time ran out, does it count?” Decide this before the game starts, most house rules say no, a guess has to land inside the clock, but some groups allow a single bonus guess from the acting team’s next opponent instead.
The hand signals everyone forgets
These are the standard conventions most groups half-remember from childhood, worth a thirty-second refresher before the first round rather than relying on whoever’s played most recently to explain them mid-game.
- Movie — crank an imaginary camera handle.
- Book — hold both palms open like an open book.
- Song — conduct an invisible orchestra, or mime singing into a microphone.
- TV show — draw a rectangle in the air with both hands.
- Number of words — hold up that many fingers.
- Which word you’re on — hold up fingers again to say which one, first, second, third.
- Number of syllables — tap that many fingers along your other forearm.
- “Sounds like” — tug your earlobe.
- “The whole thing” — sweep both arms wide together.
- Longer or shorter — pull your hands apart for longer, push them together for shorter.
- “You’re right on it” — touch your nose.
How many words you actually need
As a rough planning guide, not a strict count, four players for thirty minutes typically gets through 20 to 30 words, eight players more like 40 to 60, since more players means more simultaneous guessing and faster rounds. One 25-word category above is roughly one round for a small group, plan two or three categories for a full evening rather than trying to burn through the whole 200 in one sitting. A party that runs multiple game types in one evening, charades, then pictionary, then a round of bingo, tends to use fewer words per game than an evening dedicated entirely to charades, so scale the count down if charades is only one part of the night rather than the whole event.
Charades for kids who can’t read yet
Swap word cards for picture cards using the same “Kids’ easy 25” list above, cat, dog, frog, monkey, bunny and the rest are all single, drawable objects or actions. A grown-up or older sibling reads the word and turns it into a simple picture card, or draws a quick icon by hand, so a pre-reader can still pick a card and act without needing to sound anything out first. This version also works well mixed straight into a family game night alongside the standard word cards, an older child or adult draws from the regular deck while a younger one draws from the picture pile, so nobody is left out of the same round for reading-level reasons alone. Keep the picture deck a little smaller than the full 25, ten to fifteen cards is plenty for a young child’s attention span, and refresh it with new pictures once the same set starts feeling too familiar to guess quickly.
Print your own set
The charades generator turns any of the categories above, or your own list, into printable cards, 8 or 12 to a US Letter or A4 sheet. Print, cut along the crop marks, and shuffle into a hat or a bowl, free, no signup, no card limit. Printing a full set beats writing cards by hand for one simple reason, consistency, every card comes out the same size and the same style, so there’s no telling which handwriting belongs to which player once they’re shuffled together. Print one category for a themed round, or mix two or three into a single deck for a longer game, and keep a spare printed set in a drawer so a future game night needs no prep at all.
Christmas, Halloween and party sets
Ready-made themed sets sit alongside the general list above: Christmas charades for a holiday party, Halloween charades for something spookier, and kids’ party charades sized for a birthday crowd. Running a film night instead? Movie night charades leans entirely on titles, and if drawing suits the room better than acting, the same word banks work as pictionary words too. Any of these sets can also swap in a handful of words from the general 200 above if the themed list runs short partway through a longer party, there’s no rule against mixing a themed deck with a few extras from the main list.
FAQ
What are good charades words?
A good charades word has a clear physical action, a recognizable title, or (for a harder game) an abstract idea that can still be broken into mimeable parts. The 200 words above are split into eight categories from easy animals to hard abstract concepts, so you can match the word to the group.
How long do you get in charades?
60 seconds is standard for a fast-moving party game, 90 seconds gives more breathing room for kids or a mixed-ability group. Agree the time before you start and keep it the same for every turn.
What are the charades hand signals?
A standard set covers most situations, a cranking motion for movie, open palms for book, conducting or mime-singing for song, drawing a rectangle in the air for TV show, holding up fingers for the number of words, then pointing at fingers to say which word, tapping fingers along the forearm for syllables, tugging an earlobe for “sounds like,” sweeping both arms for “the whole thing,” pulling or squashing your hands for longer or shorter, and touching your nose for “you’re right on it.”
How many words do you need for charades?
As a rough planning guide, four players for 30 minutes typically gets through 20 to 30 words, eight players more like 40 to 60. One 25-word category here is roughly one round for a small group.
Can you play charades with four people?
Yes. Charades works from as few as four players, two teams of two, right up to a full party split into two large teams. Smaller groups just mean everyone acts more often.
Ready to print? The charades generator builds a printable set from any category above or your own list, free, in under a minute.