Charades Word Lists: 200 Ideas By Category And Difficulty

Charades word lists

Charades falls apart when someone picks something unguessable. These lists are tested against the only rule that matters: could the rest of the room reasonably get it?

Cut them into strips, fold and drop in a bowl. The signals are explained at the end.

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Easy - films

  • Titanic
  • Jaws
  • Frozen
  • Toy Story
  • The Lion King
  • Home Alone
  • Shrek
  • Jurassic Park
  • Mary Poppins
  • Finding Nemo

Harder films

  • The Shawshank Redemption
  • Trainspotting
  • Four Weddings and a Funeral
  • The Full Monty
  • Bridget Jones's Diary
  • Inception
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel
  • Slumdog Millionaire

TV programmes

  • Only Fools and Horses
  • Doctor Who
  • The Great British Bake Off
  • Strictly Come Dancing
  • Fawlty Towers
  • Peaky Blinders
  • EastEnders
  • Line of Duty
  • Gogglebox
  • The Chase

Books

  • Harry Potter
  • The Hungry Caterpillar
  • Pride and Prejudice
  • The Gruffalo
  • Lord of the Rings
  • Oliver Twist
  • Matilda
  • A Christmas Carol

Actions - good for children

  • Brushing your teeth
  • Riding a bike
  • Making a cup of tea
  • Walking the dog
  • Fishing
  • Playing football
  • Vacuuming
  • Swimming
  • Painting a wall
  • Taking a selfie

Animals

  • Elephant
  • Penguin
  • Kangaroo
  • Snake
  • Octopus
  • Giraffe
  • Chicken
  • Frog
  • Bat
  • Crab

Songs

  • Bohemian Rhapsody
  • Dancing Queen
  • Wonderwall
  • Sweet Caroline
  • Single Ladies
  • Hey Jude
  • Shake It Off
  • Y.M.C.A.

The standard signals

  • Film - crank an imaginary camera handle.
  • TV - draw a rectangle in the air.
  • Book - open your palms like a book.
  • Song - mime singing.
  • Number of words - hold up that many fingers.
  • Which word - hold up fingers again.
  • Number of syllables - fingers laid on your forearm.
  • Sounds like - tug your earlobe.
  • Short word - hold thumb and finger close together.
  • Close - wave your hand to say keep going.

House rules worth setting

  • Two minutes per turn, timed.
  • No mouthing, no pointing at objects in the room.
  • Write your own entries for the other team, not your own.
  • Anything nobody in the room has heard of gets thrown out, no argument.
  • Score by team, not individual, or someone will sulk.

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How to write it so it lands

  • Write entries for the other team, never your own. It fixes half the arguments.
  • If nobody in the room has heard of it, bin it and redraw.

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Frequently asked questions

What are the charades hand signals?

Cranking a camera for film, a rectangle for TV, open palms for a book, mimed singing for a song. Fingers show word and syllable counts, and tugging an earlobe means sounds like.

How long should a charades turn be?

Two minutes is standard. Ninety seconds keeps a big group moving.

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