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How to Play Charades

Here are all the instructions for how to play Charades, the classic game of acting, drama and guessing.
How to Play Charades

Directions for How to Play Charades 

Choose a player to start the game. The player thinks of a book title, a famous person's name, a saying, a movie title or a song title to pantomime. He should choose something with which the others will be familiar. If you like, designate a category like sports or Disney.

The player then pantomimes the word or phrase he's chosen to the other players.

Here are some common clues used in charades:

  • To indicate a book, pretend to read a book.
  • To indicate a song, pretend to sing.
  • To indicate a movie, pretend to crank an old movie camera.
  • To indicate the number of words, hold up that many fingers. (Then hold up one finger before pantomiming the first word, two fingers before the second, and so on.)
  • To pantomime a word that rhymes with the word you want players to guess, first tug on your ear to say "sounds like."

The first person to guess the word or phrase gets a point.

family playing charades in the living room

If you like, divide into teams before playing. Players from each team take turns pantomiming for their teammates. The first team to guess the word or phrase gets a point.

Keep track of the points earned by each player or team. The one with the most points at the end of the game wins.

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