Fun word games for adults

Fun Vocabulary Games & Activities in English: #1 List in 2022

You found our list of fun and simple vocabulary games for adults.

Vocabulary games are activities that include language and wordplay. Example games include Word Association and Hang Man. Players can enjoy vocabulary games in person or online. The purpose of these games is to strengthen vocabulary skills. These games are also known as “vocab games”, “letter games” and “vocabulary building games.”

These games make great online classroom activities and communication games, and can be used as online fun activities for employees.

This list includes:

• vocabulary games for adults
• simple vocabulary word games for adults
• fun online vocabulary games and activities
• English vocabulary games
• vocabulary games in English
• games to improve vocabulary
• vocabulary building activities
• vocab review games
• vocabulary games for students

Get ready to play!

List of vocabulary games

From Pictionary to word scrambles to synonym memory, here is a list of fun word games to play in classrooms, at parties, or during meetings.

1. Vocabulary Pictionary

Pictionary is a game of charades where players draw words instead of acting them out.

To play:

1. Split the group into teams.
2. Each round, assign one team member to draw.
3. Give the drawing team member a word.
4. Allow up to sixty seconds for teammates to guess.
5. If the team guesses correctly, then assign one point.

You can give other teams the opportunity to steal, or move onto the next team’s turn. The game is a great way to practice new vocabulary, as players connect the word with an image. Pictionary is a fun game for virtual parties or in-person affairs.

To play Pictionary online, draw on the whiteboard app feature on your online meeting software.

2. Word Association

Word Association is one of the best vocabulary games for kids and classrooms since playing does not require a large vocabulary. The rules are simple and easy to understand. Typically, the game involves two players.

To play:

1. Player one says a word.
2. Player two responds with the first word that comes to mind.
3. Player one either chooses a new word or responds to player two’s word.
4. The game continues until one player repeats a word or pauses too long.

The rapid pace of the game generates excitement and occasionally results in funny answers.

If a student makes a mistake, then the teacher can pause the game and ask the student to explain or find a more fitting word. Ideally, gamemasters should allow players a few extra seconds to respond. Players should never feel embarrassed. There are no wrong answers in word association, but the game can serve as a learning opportunity to find better words.

If playing via Zoom, then player one or the teacher speaks a word, and other students answer in the chat. The class counts up matching answers and discusses different responses, guessing the reasoning behind each answer.

3. Vocabulary Hangman

Hangman is a classic chalkboard word game that translates easily to online play, thanks to digital whiteboards.

To play:

1. Assign a player a word.
2. The player draws a series of blanks corresponding to the number of letters in the word.
3. Other players guess letters.
4. If the letter is in the word, then the “executioner” fills in the blank. If not, then the executioner draws one portion of the gallows.
5. The game ends when players guess the word, or when the picture is complete.

The best words to use for hangman contain less-used letters like z, x, and q. Examples of hard hangman words include zigzagging, razzmatazz, and quadrants.

4. Word search

Word searches are common classroom vocabulary games. These activities work well for handouts, and you can play during video calls by using the whiteboard feature and enabling annotation.

We made a sample word search you can use.

To make the game more competitive and exciting, turn the challenge into a race and award prizes to the first players to complete the puzzles.

5. Crossword

Crossword puzzles consist of a series of interconnecting boxes, each of which starts blank but contains one letter by the end of the game. Under the puzzle are two lists of clues, across and down respectively. Solvers need to consider the meaning of words, number of letters, and surrounding words, making the game strategic as well as literary.

Here is an example of a crossword puzzle you can use with your class or team.

Here is the answer key.

Crosswords are great word games for any age or skill level because puzzle makers can adjust the difficulty to suit players. To make your own crossword puzzle, use an online crossword creator.

6. Word Scramble

Word scrambles make great games for English class, and adults enjoy these language brain teasers as well. Simply mix up the order of the letters and ask players to unscramble and identify the original words.

Here is a sample to start with.

And here is the answer key.

To make your own word scrambles, use an online letter randomizer.

7. Scrabble

Scrabble is one of the most popular word games for adults or children. Players must use letter tiles to assemble words on the game board.

To play:

1. Each player draws seven letter tiles.
2. During turns, players can play tiles or exchange them for new letters.
3. Players build words on the board, with each new word connecting to an existing word.
4. Tiles have a point value assigned depending on the challenge of the letter. When a player makes a word, tally the letter and add the score to the point board.

More challenging letters have higher point values. For example, E is one point, while Z is ten. To find the point values for each tile and read more gameplay tips, check out this guide from Hasbro.

To coordinate the game for language lessons, assign higher scores for vocabulary words, and ask players to use the words in a sentence for extra points.

Scrabble is easy to play online, too, making it one of the best online vocabulary games. To play virtually, simply find a multiplayer online version of the game, such as Words With Friends.

8. Scattergories

Scattergories is one of the most fun and simple word games for adults. The game challenges players to think up words all starting with the same letter.

To play:

1. One player rolls a letter die or uses a letter generator to pick the first letter.
2. The timekeeper puts 60 seconds on the clock.
3. Players write down one answer per category starting with the letter.
4. When time runs out, players read the answers.
5. Players receive a point for every answer.

Alliterative phrases count for double or triple points. If two players have the same answer, then they must cross it out and neither receives points. Of course, a player will not receive points for blank answers either. At the end of each round, the player with the most points wins.

Here is a list of sample Scattergories categories:

• A boy’s name, girl’s name, or gender neutral name
• Capital cities
• Four letter words
• Types of drinks
• Holidays
• Careers or professions
• Cartoon characters
• Websites
• Desserts

You could create more inventive categories for the game, or challenge players to make up prompts.

To play virtually, use the chat, screen-share, whiteboard functions in your virtual meeting platform. You can also share a Google Doc or Form, or join a multiplayer online Scattergories game together.

9. Tree or Bob Ross

Tree or Bob Ross is a fun video conference game that challenges players to guess a word by asking questions.

The player who conjures the word is The Post. The Post answers This or That questions whose answers help players narrow down the word.

The first question of the game is usually “is it more like a tree, or more like Bob Ross?” and The Post must answer accordingly. For instance, a rose is probably more like a tree, but Pinnochio presents an interesting challenge.

Each turn, the guesser adds a new word. For example, the second question might be, “is it more like a tree or a fern?” The game continues until players guess correctly. For more excitement, introduce a time limit, or award more points if players guess the word during earlier rounds.

10. Vocabulary Pyramid

Pyramid challenges players to guess words from context clues. The pyramid is a collection of six words, arranged with three on the bottom, two in the middle, and one at the top. To win, teams must guess all words within the pyramid in the allotted time.

To play:

1. Divide the group into teams.
2. Give one player on each team the pyramid.
3. The pyramid holder must give hints to teammates describing each word without using the actual name of the item.
4. When players guess correctly, the pyramid master can move to the next word. Or, players can say “pass,” and return to the word later.
5. Teams receive a point for every correct guess.

When determining the time limit, consider the age of your players and the difficulty of the words. In general, 30 seconds per word, or three minutes total, is a good place to start, but add or take away time to increase or decrease the challenge.

11. Invisible Bridge

Invisible Bridge is similar to six degrees of Kevin Bacon. In both games, you must figure out a way to connect two seemingly distant concepts. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon uses actors, while Invisible Bridge uses words.

To play:

1. A player suggests two unrelated words.
2. Player one gives a number of planks. This is how many steps other players must use to relate the two words.
3. The other players think up words that share similar traits, synonyms, or connector words to move from one term to another.

An example round might look as follows:

Tiger, Astronaut, eight planks

Tiger – Balm – Lip – Service – Customer – Happy – Pills – Capsules – Space – Astronaut

Meanwhile, Tiger, Astronaut, two planks might look like this:

Tiger – meat eater – meteor – Astronaut

One fun aspect about this game is there can be more than one correct answer, and opposing teams can dispute far-reaches. Invisible bridge encourages players to think about the nature of language and the relationship between words.

12. Poetry Improv

Poetry Improv is an exercise that challenges participants to craft verses on the spot.

To play:

1. Pick a poetry style, such as sonnet, haiku, acrostic, limerick, or free verse.
2. Give participants vocabulary words to use within the poem.
3. Allow five or ten minutes for groups or individuals to complete the verses. If playing online via meeting software, then send groups to breakout rooms to work.
4. Ask poets to share the masterpieces aloud.

For extra fun, turn other players into judges by asking them to rate the poems by holding up scorecards. To make the game more fast-paced, ask players to finish each others’ phrases on the spot for a true poetic improv.

13. Synonym Memory

The rules of Memory are easy: flip over two cards at a time and look for matching pictures or words. When players find pairs, they take the cards off the board. The player with the most pairs of cards at the end of the game wins.

Synonym Memory puts a challenging spin on the simple game. Instead of hunting for exact matches, players pair up words with synonyms.

Here are some sample matches:

• enticing/tempting
• assume/suppose
• patience/restraint
• revoke/rescind
• impact/collision

The game encourages players to think in different ways, as participants will need to remember the location of the cards as well as consider meanings of words.

To play online, make your own virtual synonym memory game with an online tool and share screens to play, with one player flipping over the cards at other players’ request.

List of words to use for vocabulary games

Here is a list of great words to use in word games:

• serendipity
• fortitude
• akimbo
• sumptuous
• ineffable
• zephyr
• incorrigible
• medallion
• mauve
• bombast
• denouement
• contemporary
• gossamer
• inane
• hippodrome
• concession
• ideology
• quintessential
• prescient
• regurgitate
• gnash
• cataclysmic
• knell

For further inspiration, use a random word generator or consult online lists of difficult or intersecting words.

Conclusion

Vocabulary games and activities test and strengthen players’ communication skills. These word games minimize frustration by disguising language lessons in the form of an exciting challenge. Not to mention, simple word games are fun for adults and kids alike, and make great icebreaker activities during meetings. Most games only require words and a way to share them, so playing word games online via Zoom or similar platforms is easy.

For even more smart fun, check out our posts on problem solving games, question games and team building brain teasers.

12 Fun Word Games for Adults Worth the Loudness

Michael Kwan • May 27, 2022 • 7 min read

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You may have played word games in school. They’re great for learning new vocabulary. Awesome word games for adults can be a blast now that you’re a grown-up too. Beyond the variety of word games you can play online and on mobile, you can also enjoy a great range of in-person word games. From casual get-togethers to company ice-breakers, group word games for adults will get everyone talking.

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Party Word Games for Adults

One of the best things about party word games for adults is that they can be easily adapted for small groups and larger gatherings alike.

True Story 

Can you maintain a lie through an intense session of questioning? True Story is a great spoken word game for parties. Tell a story, true or not, and answer questions from other players. At the end, they have to guess whether you’re telling the truth or the story is a lie. Did you really scale Mount Everest?

Anagram-a-rama

If you’re already playing games like Wordscapes, you’ll excel at this party variant… except there’s no cheating allowed. Break out a pad of paper and give everyone a sheet. Start with a random word (ideally at least six or seven letters long) and set the timer. Players try to rearrange the letters to form as many new words (at least three letters long) as they can. The player with the most words wins. 

Sticker Shock

This game will require some sticky labels. Everyone sticks a label on their forehead with a mystery word on it. The goal is to get everyone to say their mystery word before the party ends. Alternatively, if you get someone to say their mystery word, you take their label. The person who collects the most labels wins.

sticker shock game

Word Association Games

Language is all about connections. Some of the best free word games for adults lean into this idea of word association. Better still, you usually don’t need anything but your creativity and a vast vocabulary.

Word Chains

Perhaps you’ve played some word chain games on your smartphone already. Some of these are word association games that adults can play in pairs or small groups too. Each player adds a word to the previous word to form a two-word phrase. For example, “dance club” could become “dance club soda. ” The next player can then follow with “dance club soda pop,” and so on. If a player forgets a word or can’t think of a word to add to the chain, they’re out. Keep the chain going as long as possible!

Bang, Clap, Snap

Start by getting everyone to sit in a circle. Establish a four-beat rhythm by banging your lap (or table), clapping your hands, snapping with your left hand and then snapping with your right hand. Once you’ve got the rhythm going, say the line, “Give me a word to describe…” and name something. Each player in turn must then provide a suitable adjective within one bang, clap, snap cycle. For example, you may be asked to describe a dog. Suitable adjectives might include furry, companion and playful. 

Unique Connections

The word association game for adults is best enjoyed if everyone has a whiteboard to write on. But, you can make do with pads of paper too. Each player gets a turn coming up with a “seed” word. For each seed word, every player writes down a word related to it. If you write down a word that no one else did, you get a point. Players can also challenge one another if they think the word their opponent writes down is not reasonably related to the “seed” word. That player must then defend their choice.

Board Games for Word Nerds

Tried-and-true board games are a great option for adults who want to play some familiar word games. There are even some great travel edition Scrabble games you can take on the go. But, what other word-centric board games might you want to play?

Bananagrams

It’s like a fast-paced version of Scrabble without the board or any points. With Bananagrams, each player starts with 11 to 21 letter tiles, face down. When the game begins, they must build a personal crossword with these letters. They can keep rearranging the letters to make them work. Once one player is out of tiles, they call out, “Peel!” and everyone must draw one tile from the remaining pile. Play continues until there are no tiles left in the middle and the winner has used all their tiles.

Quickwits

How quickly can you think on your toes? Quickwits is a fast-paced social card game for adults. When you get two cards with matching symbols, players race to shout out an item or title that matches the category on their opponent’s card. This YouTube video provides a great overview of how to play Quickwits, including the specialty cards. The game features some risque topics and adult themes, so that’s why it’s meant for ages 17 and up. Depending on your level of comfort, you may not want to play with grandma either. 

Words With Friends Board Game

At this point, some adults may be more familiar with Words With Friends than they are with the original Scrabble game. There are differences in board layout, letter values, and tile distribution, as well as playable words. If you’d prefer to play in real life and not just on your device, grab a Words With Friends board game to play with your friends. 

Word Guessing Games for Adults

You can be as obscure or as commonplace as you’d like with word guessing games for adults. If you’re among a particularly intellectual crowd, choose esoteric terms for a greater challenge. For these free word games for adults, all you need is your imagination and wits.

Secret Celebrity

In one version of this game, the selected player hosts a press conference as a celebrity, but they don’t know who they are pretending to be. Other players ask questions, like at a press conference, until the selected player can guess who they’re supposed to be. In a word game variant, the selected player can be an object, a place or any other word or phrase.

secret celebrity game

Copycat Charades

Unlike regular charades, two people are up to play at the same time. The first player looks at the clue and goes behind everyone else. The second player stands in front of everyone, like in regular charades, but they don’t know what the clue is. The first player acts it out while the second player tries to copy them. This is much harder, because the second player doesn’t know what word or phrase they’re trying to convey.  

Packing for Vacation

The first player starts the game by saying, “I’m packing for vacation and bringing (blank), but I’m not bringing (blank).” Subsequent players make the same statement, but with different objects. The first player tells them whether they’re correct or not. The secret is that the first player decided on a specific word rule. For example, the items you bring must have two vowels in a row. In this case, valid answers may include headphones and toenails, but not apples or pajamas. 

Play Online or On the Go

You may not always be able to get together with friends, colleagues and loved ones to play word games in person. That’s OK. There are lots of fun multiplayer word games you can play online from the comfort of your web browser. Alternatively, if you’re looking for mobile games to play on the go, WordFinder's list of multiplayer word games for Android and iOS is just what you need. You’ve always got an opportunity to play word games with friends! 

Michael Kwan is a professional writer and editor with over 14 years of experience. Fueled by caffeine and WiFi, he's no stranger to word games and dad jokes.

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Word games • Arzamas

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"Hat", "telegrams", "MPS" and other games that require almost nothing but company and a desire to have a good time

Author Lev Gankin

Primer “A. B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861

Oral games

Associations

Game for a big company. The host briefly leaves the room, during which time the rest decide which of those present they will guess (this may be the host himself). Upon returning, the player asks the others questions - what flower do you associate this person with, what vehicle, what part of the body, what kitchen utensils, etc. - in order to understand who is hidden. Questions can be very different - this is not limited by anything other than the imagination of the players. Since associations are an individual matter and an exact match may not happen here, it is customary to give the guesser two or three attempts. If the company is small, you can expand the circle of mutual acquaintances who are not present at that moment in the room, although the classic version of "associations" is still a hermetic game.

Game of P

A game for a company of four people, an interesting variation on the "hat" theme (see below), but does not require any special accessories. One player guesses a word to another, which he must explain to the others, but he can only use words starting with the letter "p" (any, except for the same root). That is, the word "house" will have to be explained, for example, as follows: "I built - I live." If you couldn’t guess right away, you can throw up additional associations: “building, premises, space, the simplest concept ...” And at the end add, for example, “Perignon” - by association with Dom Perignon champagne. If the guessers are close to winning, then the facilitator will need comments like “about”, “approximately”, “almost right” - or, in the opposite situation: “bad, wait!”. Usually, after the word is guessed, the explainer comes up with a new word and whispers it into the ear of the guesser - he becomes the next leader.

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Primer "A. B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861

Say the Same Thing

An upbeat and fast-paced game for two, named after a video clip by the inventive rock band OK Go, from which many people learned about it (the musicians even developed a mobile application that helps to play it from a distance, although it is currently unavailable). The meaning of the game is that on the count of one-two-three each of the players pronounces a randomly chosen word. Further, the goal of the players is, with the help of successive associations, to come to a common denominator: for the next time, two or three, both pronounce a word that is somehow connected with the previous two, and so on until the desired coincidence occurs. Suppose the first player said the word "house" and the second player said the word "sausage"; in theory, they can coincide very soon, if on the second move after one-two-three both say "store". But if one says “shop”, and the other says “refrigerator” (why not a sausage house?), then the game can drag on, especially since it’s impossible to repeat - neither the store nor the refrigerator will fit, and you will have to think, say, before "refrigerator" or "IKEI". If the original words are far from each other (for example, "curb" and "weightlessness"), then the gameplay becomes completely unpredictable.

Characters

A game for the company (the ideal number of players is from four to ten), which requires from the participants not only good imagination, but also, preferably, a little bit of acting skills. As usual, one of the players briefly leaves the room, and while he is gone, the rest come up with a word, the number of letters in which matches the number of participants remaining in the room. Next, the letters are distributed among the players, and a character is invented for each of them (therefore, words that contain "b", "s" or "b" do not fit). Until the word is guessed, the players behave in accordance with the chosen character - the leader's task is to understand exactly what characters his partners portray and restore the hidden word. Imagine, for example, that a company consists of seven people. One leaves, the rest come up with a six-letter word "old man" and distribute roles among themselves: the first, say, will be with indoor, the second - t erpel, the third - a secondary, the fourth - p asylum, the fifth - and mane and sixth - to ovary. The returning player is greeted by a cacophony of voices - the company "lives" their roles until they are unraveled, and the host asks the players questions that help reveal their image. The only condition is that as soon as the presenter pronounces the correct character - for example, guesses the insidious one - he must admit that his incognito has been revealed and announce the number of his letter (in the word "old man" - the sixth).

Recognize the song

A game for a company of four to five people. The host leaves, and the remaining players choose a well-known song and distribute its words among themselves - each word. For example, the song “Let there always be sun” is guessed: one player gets the word “let”, the second - “always”, the third - “will be”, the fourth - “sun”. The host returns and begins to ask questions - the most varied and unexpected: "What is your favorite city?", "Where does the Volga flow?", "What to do and who is to blame?". The task of the respondents is to use their own word in the answer and try to do it in such a way that it does not stand out too much; you need to answer quickly and not very extensively, but not necessarily truthfully. Answers to questions in this case can be, for example, “It’s hard for me to choose one city, but let today it will be Rio de Janeiro" or "Volga - into the Caspian, but this does not happen always , every third year it flows into the Black". The presenter must catch which word is superfluous in the answer and guess the song. They often play with lines from poetry rather than from songs.

Tip

A game for four people divided into pairs (in principle, there can be three or four pairs). The mechanics is extremely simple: the first player from the first pair whispers a word (a common noun in the singular) into the ear of the first player from the second pair, then they must take turns calling their associations with this word (in the same form - common nouns; cognate words cannot be used ). After each association, the teammate of the player who voiced it calls out his word, trying to guess if it was originally guessed - and so on, until the problem is solved by someone; at the same time, all associations already sounded in the game can be used in the future, adding one new one at each move. For example, suppose there are players A and B on one team, and C and D on the other. Player A whispers the word "old man" into player C's ear. Player C says aloud to his partner D: "age". If D immediately answers "old man", then the pair of C and D scores a point, but if he says, for example, "youth", then the move goes to player A, who, using the word "age" suggested by C (but discarding the irrelevant to the case "youth" from D), says to his partner B: "age, man." Now B will probably guess the old man - and his team with A will already earn a point. But if he says "teenager" (thinking that it is about the age when boys turn into men), then C, to whom the move suddenly returned, will say " age, man, eightieth birthday”, and here, probably, “old man” will be guessed. In one of the variants of the game, it is also allowed to "shout": this means that, having suddenly guessed what was meant, the player can shout out the option not on his turn. If he guessed right, his team will get a point, but if he rushed to conclusions, the team will lose a point. They usually play up to five points.

IPU

Game for a big company. Here we are forced to warn readers that, having seen this text in full, you will never be able to drive again - the game is one-time.

Spoiler →

First, the player who gets to drive leaves the room. When he returns, he must find out what MPS means - all that is known in advance is that the bearer of this mysterious abbreviation is present in the room right now. To find out the correct answer, the driver can ask other players questions, the answers to which should be formulated as “yes” or “no”: “Does he have blond hair?”, “Does he have blue eyes?”, “Is this a man?”, “He in jeans?", "Does he have a beard?"; moreover, each question is asked to a specific player, and not to all at once. Most likely, it will quickly become clear that there is simply no person in the room who meets all the criteria; Accordingly, the question arises, according to what principle the players give answers. "Opening" this principle will help answer the main question - what is MPS. The Ministry of Railways is not the Ministry of Communications at all, but m oh p equal s seated (that is, each player always describes the person sitting to his right). Another option is COP, to then about answered n last (that is, everyone talks about who answered the previous question).

Contact

A simple game that can be played with a group of three or more people. One thinks of a word (noun, common noun, singular) and calls its first letter aloud, the task of the others is to guess the word, remembering other words with this letter, asking questions about them and checking if the presenter guessed. The facilitator's task is not to reveal the next letters in the word to the players for as long as possible. For example, a word with the letter "d" is guessed. One of the players asks the question: “Is this by chance not the place where we live?” This is where the fun begins: the host must figure out as quickly as possible what the player means and say “No, this is not“ house ”” (well, or, if it was a“ house ”, honestly admit it). But in parallel, other players also think the same thing, and if they understand what “house” means before the leader, then they say: “contact” or “there is contact”, and start counting up to ten in chorus (while the count is going on, the presenter still has a chance to escape and guess what it is about!), and then they call the word. If at least two matched, that is, at the expense of ten they said “house” in chorus, the presenter must reveal the next letter, and the new guesser version will already begin with the now known letters “d” + the next one. If it was not possible to beat the host on this question, then the guessers offer a new option. Of course, it makes sense to complicate the definitions, and not ask everything directly - so the question about "home" would sound better like "Is this not where the sun rises?" (with a reference to the famous song "House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals). Usually, the one who eventually gets to the searched word (names it or asks a question leading to victory) becomes the next leader.

Writing games

Encyclopedia

Not the fastest, but extremely exciting game for a company of four people - you will need pens, paper and some kind of encyclopedic dictionary (preferably not limited thematically - that is, TSB is better than a conditional "biological encyclopedia"). The host finds a word in the encyclopedia that is unknown to anyone present (here it remains to rely on their honesty - but cheating in this game is uninteresting and unproductive). The task of each of the players is to write an encyclopedic definition of this word, inventing its meaning from the head and, if possible, disguising the text as a real small encyclopedic article. The presenter, meanwhile, carefully rewrites the real definition from the encyclopedia. After that, the “articles” are shuffled and read out by the presenter in random order, including the real one, and the players vote for which option seems most convincing to them. In the end, the votes are counted and points are distributed. Any player receives a point for correctly guessing the real definition and one more point for each vote given by other participants to his own version. After that, the sheets are distributed back and a new word is played out - there should be about 6-10 of them in total. You can also play this game in teams: come up with imaginary definitions collectively. The game "poems" is arranged in a similar way - but instead of a compound word, the host selects two lines from some little-known poem in advance and invites the participants to add quatrains.

Game from Inglourious Basterds

A game for a company of any size that many knew before the Quentin Tarantino film, but it does not have a single name. Each player invents a role for his neighbor (usually it is some famous person), writes it on a piece of paper and sticks the piece of paper on his neighbor's forehead: accordingly, everyone sees what role someone has, but does not know who they are. The task of the participants is, with the help of leading questions, the answers to which are formulated as “yes” or “no” (“Am I a historical figure?”, “Am I a cultural figure?”, “Am I a famous athlete?”), to find out who exactly they are. In this form, however, the game exhausts itself rather quickly, so you can come up with completely different themes and instead of famous people play, for example, in professions (including exotic ones - "carousel", "taxidermist"), in film and literary heroes (you can mix them with real celebrities, but it’s better to agree on this in advance), food (one player will be risotto, and the other, say, green cabbage soup) and even just items.

Bulls and cows

A game for two: one participant thinks of a word, and it is agreed in advance how many letters should be in it (usually 4-5). The task of the second is to guess this word by naming other four- or five-letter words; if some letters of the named word are in the hidden one, they are called cows, and if they have the same place inside the word, then these are bulls. Let's imagine that the word "eccentric" is conceived. If the guesser says “dot”, then he receives an answer from the second player: “three cows” (that is, the letters “h”, “k” and “a”, which are in both “eccentric” and “dot”, but in different places). If he then says "head of head", he will no longer get three cows, but two cows and one bull - since the letter "a" in both "eccentric" and "head" is in the fourth position. As a result, sooner or later, it is possible to guess the word, and the players can change places: now the first one will guess the word and count the bulls and cows, and the second one will name his options and track the extent to which they coincide with the one guessed. You can also complicate the process by simultaneously guessing your own word and guessing the opponent's word.

Intellect

Writing game for the company (but you can also play together), consisting of three rounds, each for five minutes. In the first, players randomly type thirteen letters (for example, blindly poking a book page with their finger) and then form words from them, and only long ones - from five letters. In the second round, you need to choose a syllable and remember as many words as possible that begin with it, you can use single-root ones (for example, if the syllable "house" is selected, then the words "house", "domra", "domain", "domain", "brownie", "housewife", etc.). Finally, in the third round, the syllable is taken again, but now you need to remember not ordinary words, but the names of famous people of the past and present in which it appears, and not necessarily at the beginning - that is, both Karamzin and McCartney will fit the syllable "kar" , and, for example, Hamilcar. An important detail: since this round provokes the most disputes and scams, game participants can ask each other to prove that this person is really a celebrity, and here you need to remember at least the profession and country. Typical dialogue: "What, you don't know Hamilcar? But this is a Carthaginian commander!” After each round, points are counted: if a particular word is the same for all players, it is simply crossed out, in other cases, players are awarded as many points for it as the opponents could not remember it. In the first round, you can still add points for especially long words. Based on the results of the rounds, it is necessary to determine who took the first, second, third and other places, and add up these places at the end of the game. The goal is to get the smallest number at the output (for example, if you were the winners of all three rounds, then you will get the number 3 - 1 + 1 + 1, and you are the champion; less cannot be purely mathematical).

Primer "A. B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861

Frame

A game for any number of people, which was invented by one of the creators of the Kaissa chess program and the author of the anagram search program Alexander Bitman. First, the players choose several consonants - this will be the frame, the skeleton of the word. Then the time is recorded (two or three minutes), and the players begin to “stretch” vowels (as well as “й”, “ь”, “ъ”) onto the frame to make existing words. Consonants can be used in any order, but only once, and vowels can be added in any number. For example, players choose the letters "t", "m", "n" - then the words "fog", "cloak", "mantle", "coin", "darkness", "ataman", "dumbness" and other. The winner is the one who can come up with more words (as usual, these should be common nouns in the singular). The game can be played even with one letter, for example, "l". The words “silt”, “lay”, “yula”, “aloe”, “spruce” are formed around it, and if we agree that the letter can be doubled, “alley” and “lily”. If the standard "framework" is mastered, then the task may be to compose a whole phrase with one consonant: a textbook example from the book by Evgeny Gik - "Bobby, kill the boy and beat the woman at the baobab."

Chain of words

Game for any number of players. Many people know it under the name "How to make an elephant out of a fly", and it was invented by the writer and mathematician Lewis Carroll, the author of "Alice". The “chain” is based on metagram words, that is, words that differ by only one letter. The task of the players is to turn one word into another with the least number of intermediate links. For example, let's make a "goat" from a "fox": FOX - LINDE - PAW - KAPA - KARA - KORA - GOAT. It is interesting to give tasks with a plot: so that the “day” turns into “night”, the “river” becomes the “sea”. The well-known chain, where the "elephant" grows out of the "fly", is obtained in 16 moves: FLY - MURA - TURA - TARA - KARA - KARE - CAFE - KAFR - MURDER - KAYUK - HOOK - URIK - LESSON - TERM - DRAIN - STON - ELEPHANT (example of Evgeny Gik). For training, you can compete in the search for metagrams for any word. For example, the word "tone" gives "sleep", "background", "current", "tom", "tan" and so on - whoever scores more options wins.

Hat

A game for a company of four people, requiring simple equipment: pens, paper and a “hat” (an ordinary plastic bag will do). Sheets of paper need to be torn into small pieces and distributed to the players, the number of pieces depends on how many people are playing: the larger the company, the less for each. Players write words on pieces of paper (one for each piece of paper) and throw them into the "hat". There are also options here - you can play just with words (noun, common noun, singular), or you can play with famous people or literary characters. Then the participants are divided into teams - two or more people each; the task of each - in 20 seconds (or 30, or a minute - the timing can be set at your own choice) to explain to your teammates the largest number of words arbitrarily pulled out of the "hat", without using the same root. If the driver could not explain a word, it returns to the hat and will be played by the other team. At the end of the game, the words guessed by different representatives of the same team are summed up, their number is counted, and the team that has more pieces of paper is awarded the victory. A popular version of the game: everything is the same, but in the first round the players explain the words (or describe the characters) orally, in the second round they show in pantomime, in the third round they explain the same words in one word. And recently a board game has appeared, where you need not only to explain and show, but also to draw.

Telegrams

Game for any number of players. The players choose a word, for each letter of which they will need to come up with a part of the telegram - the first letter will be the beginning of the first word, the second - the second, and so on. For example, the word "fork" is selected. Then the following message can become a telegram: “The camel is healed. I'm flying a crocodile. Aibolit". Another round of the game is the addition of genres. Each player gets the task to write not one, but several telegrams from the same word - business, congratulatory, romantic (the types of messages are agreed in advance). Telegrams are read aloud, the next word is chosen.

even more different games for one or a company

Home games

Shadow theater, crafts and paper dolls from children's books and magazines of the XIX-XX centuries Ring and other games

Games from classic books

What do the heroes of the works of Nabokov, Lindgren and Milne play

A children's course on where games, jokes, horror stories and memes come from and why we need them

Children's room

Special project

Children's room Arzamas

Sources

• Balandin B. B. Big book of intellectual games and entertaining questions for smart people and smart girls.

  M., 2008.

• Bocharova A. G., Goreva T. M., Okun V. Ya. 500 wonderful children's games.

  M., 1999.

• Geek E. Ya. Entertaining mathematical games.

  M., 1987.

• Fedin S. N. The best games with words.

  M., 2001.

• Firsova L. M. Games and entertainment. Book 1.

  M., 1989.

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Word games for the road

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What games to take with you on the road so that they do not take up space in your backpack? Of course verbal!

We have put together a list of fun games for you that will help keep your child entertained in transport while you get to the forest, for example, or other natural attractions.

Word games for kids

Similar to city games, but the theme is simpler, for example, nature.

First, the size of the jar and the initial letter of the words are assigned. And then the players take turns calling objects or living creatures with the selected letter that can be placed in this jar. You can't repeat. Whoever can't come up with a word is out.

I will take on the road with me

The players take turns naming the items they take on the road, starting with the phrase "I will take with me on the road" and repeating all the items in order that were named from the beginning .

For example:

- I take a thermos with me on the road

- I take a thermos and a flashlight with me on the road

- I take a thermos, a flashlight and a cap with me on the road ...

My new car

The host thinks of a number and everyone together counts the oncoming cars. The car that falls on the hidden number is considered the new leader's car. Especially funny if it turns out to be some kind of garbage truck.

Racing raindrops

When it's raining, choose a drop for yourself on the window and watch which drop comes down first.

Car Rainbow

Make a rainbow of cars passing by. First we look for red, then orange, etc.

Guess the driver

Try to guess who is driving the car in front. Discuss the details of appearance: age, gender, hair color and length, the presence of glasses and a headdress. And when overtaking, check who was closer to the truth and wave cheerfully to the driver.

Word games for older children

Cities

The well-known geographical game. Players name cities that start with the last letter of the previous city. No repeats.

Contact available

The host thinks of a word and pronounces the first letter. The task of the guessers is to gradually guess the word by letter, and the task of the presenter is to prevent them. How does this happen? After the first letter is named, the smartest player thinks of any word for this letter and asks a leading question to the others, trying to establish contact with one of the guessers.

The game continues until someone says the correct word.

The guesser becomes the leader.

For example. The host made up the word “Bonfire” and calls the first letter “K”. One of the players immediately reacts: “Is it by any chance not so fluffy?” (Cat) If someone else understands what is meant, he replies: “There is a contact”, and both begin to count to 10. During this time, the host may intervene: “No, this is not a cat.” Then the contact breaks and the guessers try to establish a new contact by inventing another word for the letter “K”. If the host did not have time to break contact, then the players at the expense of “10” must match and simultaneously pronounce the word “cat”. If they match, then the presenter reveals to them the next letter of his word - “Ko”. If the players did not match, for example, one said “Cat”, and the other “Bush”, then the contact is reset, the leader does not reveal the next letter.

I will take with me on a hike

The facilitator comes up with a rule according to which he will take objects with him on a hike and gives one correct example. Players try to guess this rule by naming words in turn. If the word matches the rule, then the leader takes this item with him on a hike, and the players have an idea what kind of rule it is. If the word does not fit, they do not take him on a hike. The one who guesses the rule wins.

A rule may be related to the initial letter or syllable, the shape of the object, color, quality, etc.

Ex.

Moderator: I will take binoculars with me on the hike

Will you take a sandwich with you on the hike?

No

What about water?

Perhaps

A magnifying glass?

Yes

In this example, the facilitator wants to take everything that contains glass with him on a hike.

Playing P

The host thinks of a word or someone whispers a word in his ear. His task is to explain the hidden word, using words (except for those with the same root as the hidden one) only with the letter “P”.

He can also give a reaction to the answers to orient the guessers:

+ almost correct

+/- approximately

- bad, wait

The one who guessed the word becomes the leader.

For example, the word “nature” can be explained as follows: a beautiful expanse of ferns…

If it was not possible to guess right away, then the presenter suggests further: aspen mushrooms, snowdrops, peacocks…

Say the same thing

On the account 1-2-3 each player says any word they have in mind. This is the original information. The further goal is to come to a common denominator - that is, to name the same word at the same time, without saying a word. That is, the next move will be as follows: on 1-2-3, name another word that, according to some principle, is connected with the previous spoken words. And so on until the players match.

For example:

move 1:

Player 1: Dandelion

Player 2: backpack

move 2:

Player 1: Walk

Player 2: Goyage

Stow 3:

Player 2: Forest

Say it differently

The host thinks of a word (or someone else whispers it in his ear) and tries to explain it in other words, without using the same root. You can mark the time - a minute, or you can play without taking into account the time. The one who guesses the word becomes the leader. You can also try to explain as many simple words as possible in a minute. It's already up to you.

Danetka

The moderator makes a word. The rest of the players ask leading questions that can only be answered with “yes” or “no”.

The one who guesses the word guesses the next one and leads.

For example, the host thought of the word “Tent”

Is it edible?

No

Can this be used at home?

No rather than yes

Can this be useful on a hike?

Yes

and so on, until someone the most ingenious and courageous pronounces the hidden word:

Is this a tent by any chance?

Yes

Words backwards

The leader pronounces the word, and the others try to pronounce this word in reverse at speed, as if it were read from right to left. Whoever pronounces it correctly first wins.

For example, the host thought of the word “Echidna”, the one who first said “Andihe” will win.

Think of a word for a syllable…

This is no longer just a word game, but more difficult. The host comes up with a syllable or a combination of two or three letters and pronounces it. All players take turns calling words containing this letter combination. Only common nouns in the singular are counted, without repetitions. Shootout game.

For example, a combination of letters “str” is guessed, players take turns calling: monster, aster, swift, etc.

A fairy tale with the letter…

The leader guesses any letter of the alphabet, except for ъ, ы, ь, й, ё. The rest of the players try to come up with a short story using as many words as possible for the hidden letter. Then everyone shares their stories. A simple and very fun game, and what is valuable - no losers.

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