Free online charades generator Charades

How to play charades on one phone

The rules fit in one breath: one person acts, their team guesses, and the actor can't talk. The generator handles the prompts and the clock, so you can focus on looking ridiculous.

1. 1Pick a category, or choose Mixed for a bit of everything.
2. 2Set rounds to 60, 90 or 120 seconds, and play Solo or with 2 to 4 teams.
3. 3The actor takes the phone and holds it so only they can see the screen.
4. 4Read the prompt, then act it out. No talking, no mouthing words, no pointing at the real thing in the room.
5. 5When the team guesses right, tap Got it. If a prompt is hopeless, tap Pass for a new one.
6. 6When time runs out, check the round's results and hand the phone to the next actor.

Here's a sample turn. The prompt says “Walking the dog.” You grab an invisible leash, get yanked forward, stop so the dog can sniff a tree, then crouch down to clean up after it. Somewhere around the tree, your team yells the answer. Tap Got it, and the next prompt is already waiting.

Charades categories

Each category is a list of family-friendly charades words and ideas. Pick one, or play Mixed to draw from all of them. Nothing repeats within a game, so nobody acts out the same movie twice.

Teams and scoring

With 2 to 4 teams, each team sends up one actor per round while the rest of the team guesses. Every Got it adds to the team's score, and the scoreboard carries totals from round to round, so nobody has to keep notes.

Solo is looser. No teams, just pass the phone around and let anyone guess. It's a good fit for small groups, or for kids who mostly want to perform.

Charades is best with 4 or more players, which gives you two teams of two. With 3, play Solo and rotate the actor each round.

To keep it fair, have each team pick an acting order before the first round. That way the same show-off doesn't grab the phone every time, and the shy cousin gets a turn too.

Round length changes the feel. Use 60 seconds for quick categories like Actions and Animals, and 90 or 120 when you're acting out movie titles and need room to work.

Charades tips that actually help

• Signal the category first. Crank an old-fashioned movie camera for a film so your team knows what they're guessing.
• Hold up fingers to show how many words there are, then hold up one, two or three fingers to say which word you're on.
• Tug your ear for “sounds like,” then act out a word that rhymes.
• Act the big idea before the details. For a firefighter, spray a hose before you climb a ladder.
• Use the whole room. A couch can be a car, a boat or a horse.
• Guessers, say every guess out loud. Wrong answers help the actor steer.
• If ten seconds pass with zero progress, tap Pass. There's always another prompt.

Ways to play

Where charades works best

Family game night is charades' home turf. It needs space more than skill, so a living room with the coffee table pushed back is perfect. It also works at birthday parties, holiday gatherings and sleepovers, anywhere you have a few people and a little room to move.

Teachers like it for vocabulary and verbs. The Actions category is basically a ready-made list of verbs to act out, and it gets a restless class out of their chairs for ten minutes.

For friends or family who live far away, charades is one of the few party games that works naturally over video. The actor needs the phone and a camera; everyone else just needs to see them. If you want something calmer afterward, ManyMini has other games you can play on the same phone.

A quick history of charades

Charades is an old parlor game. It began as a word riddle game and over time turned into the silent acting game most people know today. The hand signals, like fingers for the number of words or a tug on the ear for “sounds like,” were passed down by generations of people playing it at home.

Our version keeps those rules and handles the boring parts: thinking up prompts, timing rounds and keeping score.

Questions