Charades

Overview

A team acts out a word or phrase without speaking while their teammates guess. Wonderfully simple, endlessly argued over.

No governing body publishes rules for this game. This page describes the most common form. House rules vary, so agree them before you start.

Setup

Split into two teams. Each team writes clues on slips of paper and puts them in a bowl for the other team to draw from.

Agree the categories first — film, book, song, TV show, play, person, phrase — and a time limit, usually two minutes.

Play

1. One player draws a slip and reads it silently.
2. On "go", they act it out. Their team guesses aloud.
3. If the team gets it before time runs out, they score a point.
4. Turns alternate between teams, rotating the actor each round.

The rules of acting

The actor may not:

• Speak, mouth words, or make any sound
• Point at objects in the room that supply the answer
• Spell the word in the air or on their hand
• Use props

The actor may nod, shake their head, and gesture freely otherwise.

Standard gestures

These are widely used, but agree them before you start:

Gesture	Meaning
Crank an old film camera	Film
Unfold hands like a book	Book
Draw a rectangle	TV show
Hands cupped at mouth, singing	Song
Pull curtains apart	Play
Fingers held up	Number of words
Fingers on forearm	Which word you are doing
Fingers on forearm, then more fingers	Number of syllables
Tug your earlobe	"Sounds like"
Hands pulling apart	Longer word
Hands pushing together	Shorter word
Beckoning motion	Keep going, you are close
Thumb over shoulder	Past tense

Scoring

One point per correct guess within the time limit. First team to an agreed total, or the higher score after an equal number of rounds.

Can you talk or make noises?

No to both. The actor may make no sound whatsoever — no words, no mouthing, no humming, no sound effects, no clapping to indicate rhythm.

Many tables treat a noise as ending the turn. Agree what happens before you start.

The actor may nod, shake their head, gesture freely, and point at a teammate to confirm a guess.

Commonly argued

• No sound at all. Not even humming a tune.
• No spelling in the air, and no pointing at objects in the room.
• There's no official gesture list. Agree signals before you start.
• You may act out part of a word, get that guess, then continue.