Funny word games for adults

16 Fun Word Games For Adults to Play

Updated: December 14, 2022

You found our list of the best word games for adults.

Word games are fun activities that test vocabulary, spelling, and language skills. Examples include Hangman, Skribbl, and Crosswords. These games aim to ensure that teammates have fun, interact and unwind while improving communication skills.

These challenges are similar to vocabulary games, letter games, interactive activities for students, and quick games for the office.

This list includes:

• word games for groups
• spelling word games for adults
• simple word games
• writing games for adults

Here we go!

List of fun word games for adults

From I Spy to Words Within a Word to Scattergories, here is our list of fun word games and activities.

1. Words Within a Word

Words Within a Word is one of the best word games for groups because it encourages teammates to brainstorm and share ideas.

To play:

1. Share pieces of paper and pencils with teammates.
2. The teammates will choose a host for the game.
3. The host will select 15 to 20 long words.
4. The host will share the words one at a time with the players.
5. The players have 30 to 60 seconds to find as many words as possible within the given word and write them on paper. For example, the word “Explanation” has the words “Planet,” “plane,” “tin,” and “pin.”
6. The player with the most words within the allocated time wins the round.
7. The game will continue this way until the players have used up all the words.

This game is a fun way for teammates to test their language skills and develop their spelling skills. You can also organize this activity online by encouraging teammates to use the chat box. This activity can serve as an icebreaker activity for online meetings or a fun game during team get-togethers.

2. Sparkles

Sparkles is a fun word game that improves teammates’ spelling skills. In this activity, the players will sit in a circle. The first player will say a word out loud, then the second player will spell out the first letter of the word while the third player spells out the second letter. The game will continue until the last letter of the word is spelled out. The next player will yell “sparkles” and get out of the game.

The players will then begin spelling another word, and whosoever yells “sparkles” at the end of the word is out of the game. This game broadens teammates’ vocabulary and ensures that teammates collaborate. Whichever player also spells out the wrong letter is out of the game. To make this game as exciting as possible, challenge the players with difficult words that may be difficult to spell.

3. Common Quality

Common Quality is one of the best verbal games for teammates because it teaches players to connect specific descriptions to words. In this activity, the first player will say a word and a characteristic that the word has. For example, apples are green. The next player will then say a word with the same attribute or characteristic. For instance, vegetables are also green and healthy.

The next players will then use the next attribute to describe another word. The game will continue in this fashion until each player has several turns.

4. Hangman

Hangman is a fun and exciting game where teammates solve word puzzles to escape the hangman’s noose.

To play:

1. Split the teammates into small groups of four to six.
2. Choose a player to create words.
3. The wordmaster writes down dashes on a board to represent each letter of a word.
4. The teammates will need to guess the word by guessing the letters.
5. The wordmaster will write each correct letter as it appears within the word.
6. If a player guesses incorrectly, then the wordmaster draws a part of the hangman’s noose
7. The game will continue in this fashion until players guess the word or the wordmaster completes the hangman.

This game is one of the best spelling word games for adults because it is easy to play and exciting. You can also play this game on any video conferencing platform using the whiteboard feature.

5. I Spy

I Spy is a classic word game that boosts teammates’ vocabulary and improves language. In this game, a player will identify an item and give hints for teammates to guess. For example, players will say, “I spy with my little eye something beginning with H.” Then, the teammates will take turns guessing the word.

Players have 60 seconds to get the answer right, or another player will take a turn. This activity is simple to organize, fun, and easy to play. You can also organize this activity via video call for teammates. I Spy counts as a word game because it encourages participants to associate descriptive words with nouns.

6. Scattergories

Scattergories is one of the most simple word games for adults. This game expands players’ vocabulary and is a fun way for teammates to engage and interact.

To play:

1. Choose 12 categories. For example, fruits, names, and animals.
2. The players will randomly choose a letter, and each teammate has 60 seconds to fill in words starting with the given letter in each category. For example, if the teammates choose the letter “S,” they may fill in the given categories with “Strawberries,” “Sonia’, and “Snake.”
3. Each teammate who fills each category within the allocated time gets three points.
4. Players do not get any points for an answer if another player also comes up with the same response.
5. At the end of the game, the player with the highest point wins.
6. Teammates can also play this game online on any video conferencing platform or applications like Slack or Discord.

Here is a collection of team building Scattergories lists.

7. Crosswords

Crosswords is a simple and entertaining game where teammates match letters in a grid to make words. Teammates can play this game individually or in teams for free online.

The teammates can set a timer for 15 to 20 minutes, and each team must find all the words in the grid within the allocated time. The first team to cross all the words wins the game. To play this activity online, you can use a fillable crossword website or share a puzzle onscreen during a conference call and turn on the annotation feature so that participants can fill in letters.

This game is an exciting way for teammates to unwind, get to know each other, and develop friendships.

Here is a free online crossword game.

8. My Story

My story is one of the most interactive games for adults. This game allows teammates to build stories or create novel ideas from scratch.

To play:

1. Split the teammates into groups.
2. Each group will get a set of words. For example, “Miami,” “wealth,” “sadness,” and “future.”
3. Each team member must write a short two-sentence story with one of the words.
4. The group members will then combine stories and ensure that it flows.
5. The best story wins.

This game is an easy way for teammates to show their creativity, collaborate and share ideas. To make this game even more exciting, the teammates can make their stories as funny and outrageous as possible.

9. Random Word Game

Random Word Game is a fun and easy game that challenges teammates’ knowledge. In this game, players must come up with words starting with the last letter of a teammate’s word.

To play:

1. The players will sit in a circle.
2. The first player will choose any category. For example, fruits.
3. The first player must name any word within the selected category. For example, “banana.”
4. The next player must then call any other fruit beginning with the last word of the given word. For example, “apple.”
5. The game will continue in this fashion until all the teammates get several turns.
6. The teammates have only 30 seconds to come up with words.
7. Any player who cannot come up with a word within the allocated time is out of the game.

This game teaches teammates to think and brainstorm under pressure and helps test teammates’ knowledge on a variety of topics and categories.

For inspiration, here is a random word generator.

10. Rhyming Word Game

Rhyming Word Game is a fun activity that promotes learning and encourages teammates to interact with each other. In this activity, the first player will say a word, and the other teammates will take turns saying words that rhyme.

If the teammates run out of rhymes, the next player will come up with a new word, and other players will find matching rhymes. The game will continue in this fashion for several rounds. This game is a fun way to test teammates’ knowledge and challenge players to learn new words.

Pro tip: To make the game extra funny and challenging, teammates might purposely use words that are difficult to rhyme.

11. The Alliteration Game

The Alliteration Game is a fun and engaging game that requires teammates to create complete sentences, all beginning with a chosen letter.

To play:

1. The teammates will sit in a circle.
2. The players will play in alphabetical order. For example, the first player will choose the letter “A,” the second player the letter “B,” and the third player the letter “C.”
3. Each player will create a full sentence using alliterations with their given letter. For example, Allison Ate All the Angel’s Apples
4. The game will continue in the fashion until each player has had a turn.
5. The players must switch positions to play a new round.
6. Players who can’t use their given letter can skip to the next one.
7. Each player can only skip twice.

This game is a great way to spark conversations among teammates and encourage employees to interact with each other. This is one of the best activities for team building or an icebreaker activity for online meetings.

12. Scrabble

Scrabble is a classic word board game where teammates get words for creating new words. This activity is an easy way to encourage team building and foster team bonding.

To play:

1. Get a Scrabble board with all of its components.
2. Get a dictionary in case teammates need to confirm words.
3. The players will choose an order in which to play.
4. Shake the bag of letters to mix up the letters, then each player will pick a letter.
5. The players will continue in this fashion until each player has drawn seven letters.
6. Next, each player will arrange their letters on a letter.
7. The first player will create a word on the board horizontally or vertically.
8. Each letter has score points. The player will accumulate points for each complete word and note them down.
9. Players will draw new tiles for each tile used up during a turn. For example, if a player uses up five tiles for a word, then can only draw five more tiles from the bag at the end of their turn.
10. Players can create new words from other teammates’ words on the board.
11. The game will continue in this fashion until the board is full.

The teammates can refer to the dictionary if they have any confusion about a teammate’s word. This activity is a fun way for teammates to develop their spelling skills and learn the meaning of words. In addition, since players must make words around the letters already on the board, this activity encourages employees to build upon teammates’ ideas instead of creating solo.

13. Four Pictures One Word

Four Pictures One Word is an exciting online game that challenges teammates to brainstorm and pay attention to detail. In this game, the players will get four pictures that can be described with one word. Then, the players must guess the word right within a given time.

Participants can play individually or in teams. Teammates have 30 to 60 seconds to guess the word before the game passes it on to the next player or team. This activity broadens teammates’ vocabulary and helps improve spelling skills.

Here is a free Four Pictures One Word website.

14. Skribbl

Skribbl is a fun game that encourages players to cooperate and work together to solve word puzzles.

To play:

1. Access the Skribbl website.
2. Choose between three given words to draw.
3. Split the teammates into groups.
4. Each group will choose a player to draw.
5. The player will draw the given word using the tools available on the screen.
6. The teammates must guess the word the player is drawing within 60 to 80 seconds.
7. The game will continue in this manner until each group has had several turns.
8. The group with the highest points wins the game.

This game teaches teammates to collaborate and follow instructions from colleagues or superiors. This activity is also the perfect opportunity for teammates to engage and get to know each other.

Here is the Skribbl website.

15. The Word Spell

The Word Spell is a fun activity that teammates can use to develop their spelling skills. For this game, teammates will need a dictionary, a sheet of paper, and a pencil or pen.

To play:

1. The teammates will choose a host to oversee the game.
2. The teammates will choose an order in which to play.
3. The host will randomly select a word in the dictionary and read out its definition without saying what the word is.
4. The first player will guess the word and spell it.
5. The host may offer clues through synonyms or by telling the player how many letters the word has.
6. The game will continue in this fashion until each player has had several turns.

This activity challenges teammates to learn and helps broaden their vocabulary. This activity is a fun icebreaker for work and is a great way to ensure team bonding and interaction. You can also play this game online by typing the word’s definition and sharing it with attendees, and players must guess and send the word via the comment box. The first player to get the answer right wins the round.

16. Comic Story Telling

Comic Story Telling is one of the best writing games for adults because it allows folks to show off their storytelling skills and have fun. In this activity, teammates will need a notepad and pens.

To play:

1. Sit in a circle.
2. The first player will write a line of a funny story and pass the notepad to the next player.
3. The next player will continue the story with another funny line.
4. The game will continue in this fashion until the players find a satisfying and funny end to the story.

This activity will cause loud bouts of laughter, which will help teammates unwind, interact and bond with each other. This activity is also an excellent opportunity for teammates to share fun ideas and work together.

Conclusion

Word games help test teammates’ verbal, language, and spelling skills which may be necessary at work. These games also allow teammates to discuss, interact and get to know each other. Most of these activities are very easy and require little to no guidance.

For more resources, check out communication games, guessing games, and question games.

FAQ: Word games

Here are some frequently asked questions about fun word games.

What are some fun word games for adults in English?

Some fun word games for adults in English include The Alliteration Game, Random Word Game, and The Word Spell.

How do you play word games as an adult?

To play word games as an adult, choose fun verbal games that test and challenge your spelling, vocabulary, and language skills. Choose a group of friends or teammates to play with and ensure that you have a fair point system to select winners easily. It is also essential to have plenty of paper and pens handy to play these games. You can play these games in person or online using the screen sharing feature, whiteboard feature or have responses sent via the chat box on your video conferencing software.

12 Fun Word Games for Adults Worth the Loudness

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.

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.

Word games • Arzamas

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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. nine0004

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. nine0004

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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. nine0004

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). nine0004 Primer "A. B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861 Wikimedia Commons

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. nine0004 Primer "A. B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861 Wikimedia Commons

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. nine0004 Primer "A. B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861 Wikimedia Commons

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. nine0004

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. nine0004 Primer "A. B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861 Wikimedia Commons

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. nine0004

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). nine0004 Primer "A. B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861 Wikimedia Commons

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." nine0004

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. nine0004 Primer "A. B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861 Wikimedia Commons

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. nine0004

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. nine0004

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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Oral games to pass the time | Motherhood

Games of this kind are convenient because they do not need props (if necessary, then minimal), they can be used anywhere and at any time. Oral games can both diversify the holiday, and simply take hours on a tiring road or in a long queue. Such entertainment can be not only an interesting pastime, but also a good stimulus for the mental and speech development of the child.

This is perhaps the most famous game of all times and peoples of our country. The first player names any city, the next participant comes up with a city with the final letter of the previous one, for example: Moscow - Arkhangelsk - Kursk. nine0004

Alternatively, you can complicate the game by saying the names of cities in a certain country.

Another game of cities has something in common with the game “I know…”, where the continuation of the initial phrase “I know” can be completely different options: five city names starting with the letter P, five cities in Germany, five cities in Siberia, etc. The main thing is to name all five without straying and without pausing.

Both individuals and teams participate here. The first player or team sing any song (1-2 lines), the opponents must sing the answer - a song starting with the last letter of the previous one. This fun game is good for holidays and in companies where people like to sing. Thus, you can arrange a real concert, singing the songs in full. nine0004

Each participant takes turns telling two real stories that happened to him and one fictional one. The task of the rest is to guess which of them is not true. It is advisable to tell a fictional story in such a way that it would be difficult to immediately guess which of the three is made up.

The host leaves the room, and the rest of the participants guess the name of any player. The facilitator's task is to guess this person by asking association questions, for example:

“Which of the birds does this person resemble: a penguin, a sparrow, or a peacock?”, “If this person were a house, would it be a high-rise building, a cottage or a hut?”, “This person: a poppy, a rose, or a forget-me-not ?

This is a game of speed. The host writes the names of the players on the sheet and for each quick answer puts a point next to the name of the answerer. The task of the participants is to find and show the color chosen by the leader as soon as possible (in household items, in clothes, in nature, etc.) in the immediate environment. nine0004

A more complicated version of the game: colors with shades are guessed, for example, light green, dirty pink. You can also think of rarely spoken names of colors: purple, olive, khaki, etc.

Students will benefit from playing this game in English or another language they are learning.

From all that is available to the eye, the presenter guesses one object. Players take turns asking leading questions to guess it. Questions can only be answered with “yes” or “no”. Each player can do one thing on his turn: either ask a leading question, or guess what kind of object is hidden. If the player incorrectly guesses the object, then he skips the next move. The winner changes places with the host and makes a new item. nine0004

This game teaches you to listen carefully, analyze and draw conclusions, because with the help of questions asked by other participants, you can guess the object on your turn.

This game requires matches or other small items to give and take.

Each participant is given 10 matches (seeds, beads, sticks, etc.). Players take turns pronouncing the phrase: "I never ..." and continue it with some fact from their lives. It is important that this statement be as unique as possible and that as few participants as possible could say the same about themselves. As soon as the player says his phrase, all the others who cannot say this about themselves give him one match each. nine0004

For example, if you say, "I've never been a pilot on an airplane," you probably won't get more than one match because none of the players were pilots either. But, if you say: "I have never ridden a bicycle" - be sure that they will give you a lot of matches. Close friends who know each other well will see to it that there is no cunning or deceit; some facts are difficult to verify from unfamiliar participants in the game.

This game develops memory and attention. The first participant starts the game with the phrase: “I take the bag and put it in it ...” then he continues, saying any object, for example, an apple. The next person repeats everything said by the previous one, but adds one more object of his own: “I take a bag and put an apple and socks in it.” And so on, the game continues in a circle. Everyone who stumbles out. The last remaining participant who manages to pronounce the entire chain without hesitation wins. nine0004

This fun game, if you catch a wave of inspiration, will amuse its participants a lot. The task is simple: the first player says the first phrase of the verse, the second - the next, and so on. The most important thing is to keep the rhyme. For interest, you can record the work that the writers get.

You can simplify this game by giving everyone a word that will rhyme with the neighbor's word. Then there will be no tension with inventing a rhyme: everyone composes the "stuffing" of the line. For example, from the words: love-carrots, tears-roses, you can get such a rhyme:

I have love in my heart

It grows like a carrot.

That's why I shed tears -

For watering a pretty rose.

This is a game for students and their parents. Any word is thought up (better - a verb). Participants in a circle begin to pronounce its synonyms. There should be no pauses, so the one who stopped is out of the game. The last remaining participant wins.

The chain of synonyms will be longer if figurative concepts are inserted into it, for example: run - fly, work - hunchback, etc. You can also use not only one word, but also expressions that will reflect the same meaning: cry - shed tears, gather - wash skis. nine0004

Option 1. Two people play. The first pronounces half of any word, the second must continue it and name the whole word. For example:

First: “Re..”

Second: “… rights. Gor…”

First: “one… Udo…”, etc.

The winner is the one who manages to hold out without faltering.

Option 2. Game for the company. Participants are divided into 2 teams, three minutes are recorded and during this time the teams must come up with as many words as possible from the syllable they have started. The team with the most words wins. For example, you need to come up with a continuation of the part of the word "com ...": communism, communal worker, room, combine, company, comedian, team, etc. nine0004

The host leaves the hall, everyone thinks of a famous song. When the presenter enters, he must, by asking any questions (not related to the song), understand what the participants have guessed. Each participant must insert one word from the song into their answer. The next leader is the player on which the song was recognized.

For example, the song “Oh, the viburnum is blooming in the field near the stream” is suggested:

Moderator: What is the weather like today?

Player 1: Oh, it looks like it's going to rain. nine0004

Narrator: What did you have for breakfast today?

2nd player: I have a sunflower blooming under my window, I ate seeds from it.

Moderator: What color is your shirt?

Player 3: If you compare the color of my shirt with plants, it will look like viburnum. Etc.

It is important to make such sentences, with which the presenter will not immediately guess what song is being discussed.

You cannot change the case, number, declension, conjugation of words: they must remain in the form in which they stand in the song. nine0004

In these games, the participants have to guess what scheme the leader is using.

Everyone sits around on chairs. A phantom is taken (any object) that will be convenient to transfer. The host starts the game by passing the phantom to any participant, with the words: "From the cross to the parallel." The participant must pass it to any other player, correctly saying: from the cross to the parallel, or from the parallel to the cross. The task of the players is to guess what kind of system operates in this game: when they are crosses, and when they are parallels. nine0004

Actually, the answer is extremely simple: when a person sits on a chair with his legs crossed, he is a cross, and when both his legs are parallel, he is a parallel. Therefore, the same participant can be dozens of times both a cross and a parallel.

Warn the players not to be the first ones to guess the system of the game and make sure that they really understood everything correctly, not immediately tell the rest of the participants about it. You can only say: “I understand”, continue to play and wait for the others to guess. nine0004

The facilitator says the opening phrase: “I'm taking with me on a hike…” and then says some object. Players, one by one, begin to try to take something with them and name their items. The host must say: you can take them or not, and in the meantime, the participants must guess on what basis you can take things on a hike.

There can be a lot of options here (you can think of them yourself): from simple to complex. Everything will depend on the age of the players. For example, you can take items on a hike:

1. beginning or ending with a specific letter:

Moderator: "I'm taking a mug with me on a hike."

1st player: "I'm taking a stroller with me."

Player 2: "I'm taking my club with me."

2. made of a certain material (only metal or only wood):

Moderator: “I take a needle with me on a hike. ”

Player 1: "I'm taking a spoon with me."

Player 2: "I'm taking a coin with me." nine0004

3. starting with the first letter of the player's name:

Host (Vanya): "I take jam with me on a hike."

1st player (Lena): "I'm taking skis with me."

Player 2 (Glory): "I take salt with me when I hike."

4. only edible (or only inedible).

5. only those around the players. Etc.

The host says that he has a detective story, the plot of which the players will learn by asking leading questions. The facilitator has the right to answer only “yes”, “no” and “I don’t know”, and the participants must guess in what scheme the facilitator answers. nine0004

Example:

Player 1: "Was that in a big city?"

Moderator: Yes.

Player 2: “April was in the yard?”

Moderator: "I don't know."

Player 3: "Did the residents hear the shot?"

Moderator: Yes.

The secret of this game of ingenuity is as follows: when the question ends in a vowel, the host says: “Yes”, when it ends in a consonant: “No”, when it ends in a soft sign: “I don’t know.

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