Charades — rules, word ideas, and how to play
Charades is a team acting game for 4–20 players in which one player silently acts out a word or phrase — no speaking, mouthing, or pointing at objects — while their teammates try to guess it before a timer expires.
- Players
- 4–20 players
- Length
- ~20 minutes
- Type
- High energy
- Type
- Team-based
Runs in your browser · no download · no account
Charades has survived two centuries of party games because the rules fit in one sentence and the failure modes are hilarious. You get a prompt, you cannot say it, and you have to make four people understand "Jurassic Park" using only your body.
The parts that usually go wrong are the parts a phone can fix. Nobody has to write prompts on scraps of paper, nobody argues about whether the timer already started, and nobody has to remember the score. The app deals from 3,800+ hand-written prompts across nine categories and three difficulty levels, tracks what you have already used, and keeps score for both teams.
What it deliberately does not do is judge your performance. That is still the group's job, and it always will be.
Charades is part of
What you need
- One phone, held by whoever is acting
- 4 to 20 players, split into two teams
- Standing room for the actor
- About 20 minutes for a full match
How to play Charades
Split into two teams. The app deals random sides — swap players and rename your squads before locking in.
On your turn, secretly peek at your prompt (hold the card, don't say it out loud!), then act it out. No words, no mouthing, no pointing at the actual thing.
Teammates shout guesses. When they nail it, tap 'Got it!' for +1 and act the next prompt — rack up as many as you can before the buzzer.
Stuck? Skip! The first skip each turn is free; every skip after that costs 1 point.
Teams alternate turns and the actor rotates so everyone performs. Highest score after the final round takes the podium — ties go to a sudden-death round.
House rules: the guessing team keeps their eyes off the screen, and the actor's honour is sacred. 🎭
Scoring and winning
- Every prompt your team guesses correctly is +1.
- The first skip on each turn is free. Every skip after that costs 1 point, so bailing repeatedly actually hurts.
- Teams alternate turns and the actor rotates within each team, so everyone performs.
- Highest score after the final round takes the podium. A tie goes to a sudden-death round.
Charades strategy and tips
- Establish the category first with the standard gestures — a hand-crank for film, a rectangle for TV, opening palms for a book. Your team wastes half a turn if they do not know what kind of thing they are watching.
- Hold up fingers for the number of words, then for which word you are acting. It looks fussy and it is the single biggest speed improvement available.
- Act the whole concept rather than the individual words when the phrase is famous. Miming "jurassic" is a losing battle; being a terrified person hiding from something enormous is not.
- Guessers should shout continuously. Actors steer off wrong guesses, so silence starves them of information.
- Use the "sounds like" gesture — tug your earlobe — for anything unmimeable, then act the rhyme.
- Take the free skip early on a prompt you genuinely cannot see a route into. Burning forty seconds on one card is worse than losing one point.
Variants and house rules
Difficulty and category filters
Nine categories — movies, TV, songs, books, actions, animals, people, objects and phrases — across three difficulty tiers. Narrow the pool before you start to match your group.
One-word charades
House rule: the actor may say exactly one word during the whole turn, chosen carefully. Enormously helpful and enormously debated.
Reverse charades
The whole team acts and one person guesses. Chaotic, very physical, and much better for groups who are too self-conscious to perform solo.
Statue mode
The actor may pose but not move — hold each position for three seconds. Turns Charades into something closer to a puzzle.
Sudden death
Built in for ties: one extra round each, highest score wins.
Charades FAQ
What are the rules of Charades?
One player acts out a prompt while their team guesses. No speaking, no mouthing words, no pointing at real objects in the room, and no spelling in the air. Everything else is fair.
How many people do you need for Charades?
Four is the practical minimum — two per team. It works well up to about twenty, at which point turns start coming around slowly and you may want to shorten the match.
How long is each turn?
You set the turn length in the match setup. Sixty seconds is standard; ninety is more forgiving for a group new to the game.
Can the actor point at things in the room?
No. Pointing at an actual object that is the answer, or something that names it, is the one rule that ruins the game, so it is universally banned.
Are the prompts family-friendly?
They follow the global spice setting. On Family, every prompt is safe for a ten-year-old. Party and After Dark unlock cheekier material, and you can change it any time in Settings.
How is this different from Heads Up?
In Charades the actor knows the word and their team does not. In Heads Up it is the reverse — the guesser holds the phone on their forehead and everyone else can see the answer.