How to play Charades

What you need

No special equipment. The essentials are a timer (a phone works), slips of paper, a pen and two bowls or hats to hold prompts. Prompts can also be whispered by the opposing team if you skip the paper. A scrap of paper for the score is optional but saves arguments later.

• Players: four is the practical minimum, two per team. Six to twelve is the sweet spot, because every guess gets shouted from several directions at once.
• Space: a clear patch of floor in front of the guessers, about the size of a rug. The performer needs room to crouch, swing an arm and take a step or two.
• Prompts: 8 to 10 per player is enough for a full evening. Write each one on its own slip and fold it twice.

Set up the game

1. Split into two teams and seat each team together, facing the performance space. Mix strong guessers and shy players across both sides so neither team is stacked.
2. Agree on categories everyone knows. Good starters are animals, everyday activities, films, songs, books and TV shows. If kids are playing, keep to animals, sports, jobs and household chores.
3. Each team writes prompts for the other team and drops them in its bowl. Keep them to things the whole room could plausibly know. "Jurassic Park" is fair. An indie film only you have seen is not.
4. Fix the house rules out loud before the first turn: a one-minute limit, one pass per turn and one point for a correct guess. Give each team the same number of turns.
5. Decide the acting order for each team. Everyone acts before anyone acts twice.
6. Pick a timekeeper from the team that is not guessing. They start the clock, call "ten seconds" near the end, and say "time" firmly.

Playing Charades

1. The opposing team gives one performer a secret prompt, either by slip or by whisper. The performer must not reveal it to their own team.
2. The performer may give a category signal first (see the signals table below), then the timekeeper starts the clock.
3. Act silently using movement and facial expressions while teammates guess aloud. Do not mouth, spell or speak the answer, and do not point at objects in the room that spell it out for you.
4. When someone says the exact answer, the performer touches their nose and points at the guesser. Stop the clock.
5. If the prompt is hopeless, the performer may pass once. The opposing team hands over a new prompt, but the clock keeps running.
6. Award a point only for a correct answer before time, then switch teams and rotate the performer.
7. After equal turns, compare points or simply finish without declaring a winner. For a tie, either share the win or give each team one more turn.

Common signals most groups accept

Charades has a widely used set of hand signals. They are conventions, not law, so confirm them before you start.

• Number of words: hold up that many fingers at the start.
• Which word you are acting: hold up fingers again, for example two fingers for the second word.
• Syllables: lay fingers on your forearm, one for each syllable.
• Film: crank an old movie camera beside your head.
• Book: open your palms like a book.
• Song: pretend to sing with a hand by your mouth.
• TV show: draw a rectangle in the air.
• Play or stage show: take a bow.
• Sounds like: tug your earlobe.
• Small word (a, of, the): pinch thumb and finger close together. A "T" with both hands often means "the."
• Close, keep going: beckon with both hands.

A sample round, turn by turn

Six friends, two teams of three. Team A is Maya, Jordan and Sam. Team B is Priya, Luis and Ana. Team B wrote the slips for Team A.

1. Turn 1, Team A. Maya draws "Finding Nemo." She cranks the movie camera, holds up two fingers for two words, then one finger for the first word. She shades her eyes and scans the room. Jordan: "Looking! Searching! Finding!" Maya touches her nose and points at Jordan. Then two fingers, and she wiggles a hand like a fish. Sam: "Fish… Nemo! Finding Nemo!" Correct at 0:38. Team A 1, Team B 0.
2. Turn 2, Team B. Priya draws "walking a dog." She holds an invisible leash and gets yanked sideways. Luis says "fishing?" Priya exaggerates, kneels and pats a head at knee height. Ana: "Walking the dog!" Correct at 0:22. Score 1–1.
3. Turn 3, Team A. Jordan draws "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Book signal, five words. He tries acting "hungry" but his team keeps saying "stomachache." With 0:15 left he switches to inching along the floor. Too late. No point. Score stays 1–1.
4. Turn 4, Team B. Luis draws "brushing your teeth." He mimes holding a brush, moves it near his mouth, then pretends to rinse and spit. Correct at 0:12. Team B leads 2–1.
5. Turn 5, Team A. Sam draws "skydiving," finds it awkward and passes. The new slip is "penguin." He tucks his arms and waddles. Correct at 0:41, pass included. Score 2–2.
6. Turn 6, Team B. Ana draws "Let It Go." Song signal, three words. She acts "let" by opening her hands and releasing something, then flicks frost off her fingertips. Correct at 0:50. Final: Team B 3, Team A 2.

Notice what won the round: quick category signals, a switch of tactic when guesses stalled, and nobody arguing about the timer because Team B held it.

Scoring, with a worked example

In this house format a correct guess before time is worth one point. A wrong guess costs nothing, so teammates should shout freely. A pass costs only time. Some groups also award the opposing team a point when a prompt goes unsolved; that is a variant, labeled below.

After four rounds each, the game is tied 3–3. Under our tie rule, each team gets one more turn. Team A solves theirs, Team B does not, and Team A wins 4–3. If both solve or both miss, call it a shared win rather than playing on forever.

For close games, some hosts track the time each solve took and use total seconds as a tiebreaker. That works well with a phone stopwatch and a written log.

Beginner strategy that actually helps

• Signal the category first. Two seconds on "film, three words" cuts your team's guessing space enormously. Without it, they guess verbs for an object or songs for a book.
• Act the whole idea before the details. To convey "walking a dog," show the leash and the tug rather than spending the turn on a collar. Big shapes read from across a room; small finger work does not.
• Watch your guessers, not the ceiling. Their words tell you what is landing. When someone says something close, beckon hard and keep acting the same thing. When they drift, change tactic.
• Break long titles into pieces. Pick the most actable word, signal its position, and solve that first. One anchor word often lets the team leap to the full title.
• Use "sounds like" for awkward words. "Nemo" is hard. "Knee" plus "mow" is easy. Tug your ear, act the rhyme, then point back to the word slot.
• Guessers: say everything. A wrong guess costs nothing in this format. Shout synonyms, plurals and tenses ("run, running, ran") because the performer cannot tell you which one is right until you say it.
• Writers: pick fair, vivid prompts. A difficult cultural reference tests familiarity rather than acting. The best prompts are things everyone knows and nobody has acted before.

Common mistakes and rule disputes

There is no official rulebook for Charades, so "the official answer" below means the house rule this page uses and recommends you agree on before the first turn.

• Mouthing words. The most common foul. Our answer: any visible lip-shaping of the answer voids that prompt and the turn scores zero.
• Pointing at objects. Pointing at a real lamp for "lamp" is generally banned. Pointing at yourself for "I" or "me," or at a teammate to confirm a correct word, is allowed.
• Does a close guess count? Agree in advance whether a close synonym counts. Our rule: the key words must be said, but "a" and "the" can be dropped. "Hungry Caterpillar" earns the point for "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" only if the group agreed to that before play.
• Sound effects. Clapping, humming and animal noises are noise, so they are out. A performer who barks for "dog" forfeits the prompt.
• Letting the same confident player act every turn. Rotate strictly. Everyone acts before anyone acts twice.
• Giving a film title that only the prompt setter knows. If the guessing team and the performer have never heard of it, swap it for free and do not count it as their pass.
• Who decides at the buzzer? The timekeeper's call stands. If the right word was said as "time" was called, the non-guessing team decides, and ties go to the guessers.

Popular variants and house rules

Everything in this section is a house rule, not part of the core game above.

• House rule: steal point. If a team fails to guess, the other team gets one guess to steal the point. This keeps the waiting team watching closely.
• House rule: penalty point. An unsolved prompt gives a point to the team that wrote it. Rewards tricky but fair prompts.
• Variant: everyone guesses. No teams. One person acts, anyone can shout, and the first right guesser acts next. Ideal for big mixed groups and young kids.
• Variant: Fishbowl-style rounds. The same pile of prompts is played three times: describe in words, then one word only, then pure Charades. Our Fishbowl guide covers that format.
• House rule: speed round. Thirty seconds and as many prompts as you can solve. Best once everyone knows the signals.
• House rule: themed night. Every prompt comes from one theme, such as holiday films or family memories. Good for reunions.

Teach it in five minutes: a script for the host

Read this out roughly as written, then play a practice turn.

1. "Two teams. You'll write prompts for the other team, things everybody here would know: films, songs, books, animals or actions."
2. "When it's your turn, you get a slip and one minute. Act it out with no sound at all. No mouthing, no spelling, no pointing at things in the room."
3. "Your team shouts guesses. Wrong guesses cost nothing, so shout a lot. When someone's right, touch your nose and point at them."
4. "A few signals help: crank a camera for a film, open a book for a book, fingers for how many words, tug your ear for 'sounds like.'"
5. "You get one pass per turn, but the clock keeps going. Correct guess, one point. Same number of turns each, most points wins."
6. "I'll go first so you can see it." Act something easy, like "riding a bike," and let everyone guess. Then start for real.

Age and group-size advice

• Ages 4 to 6: skip teams and titles. Use pictures instead of written slips (a cat, a car, a tooth). Everyone guesses together, no clock.
• Ages 6 to 10: two teams work, with a generous 90-second timer and concrete prompts like jobs, sports and animals. Let an adult quietly help a child read the slip.
• Teens and adults: one minute, titles and phrases, and the full signal set.
• 4 to 5 players: play teams of two, or the everyone-guesses variant so nobody sits out.
• 6 to 12 players: the ideal range for two teams.
• 13 or more: split into three teams or run two games side by side. Big teams mean long waits between acting turns.
• Accessibility: a player can act while seated. Choose prompts that can be communicated with hands and facial expressions, and accept a pass without a penalty. The performer should never be required to touch another player, reveal personal information or perform a movement they cannot comfortably do.

Charades questions people ask

Check yourself

Sources and edition notes

An explicitly defined casual house format, not a universal tournament rule set. Commercial Charades sets may have their own scoring and restrictions. The hand signals listed are widely used conventions documented in general references, not mandatory rules.

Sources and stated format checked October 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing.

• Wikipedia: Charades, history, common rules and conventional signals

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