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270 of the best Charades ideas for adults and kids

Need Charades game ideas? Here’s the best Charades words for all skill levels, with a variety of prompts for all common Charades categories.

Charades ideas - Twitter emoji art of two people playing Charades

The best Charades ideas will depend on who you’re playing with. Younger gamers or those looking for a snappy playtime will prefer something simple, while more ambitious adults will be looking for a challenge. This guide features plenty of adult Charades ideas and simple, kid-friendly options for all kinds of Charades topics.

Before you get miming, here are a few more gaming guides from us. We can suggest some spicy Truth or Dare questions, as well as Never Have I Ever questions. We can also recommend the best board games in the tabletop space right now.

Best Charades ideas:

Charades categories

There are four main categories in a game of Charades: book, movie, song, and television show. Each of these has a specific miming action you perform to let your team know which category your word is from:

  • Book – Unfold your hands to mimic an opening book
  • Television – Draw a rectangle with your hands
  • Movie – Pretend to hold an old-fashioned camera and turn the handle
  • Song – Open your mouth and gesture as if sound was coming out

Some Charades categories are so simple that they have no category (for examples, see our action Charades ideas below). Other player groups like to add additional categories, such as stage plays or famous phrases. Since these are less widely known than the four basic categories, we recommend only adding these to advanced games.

Charades ideas - Twitter emoji art of a cyclist

Action Charades ideas

Easy action Charades ideas:

  • Cycling
  • Mowing the lawn
  • Basketball
  • Falling asleep
  • Praying
  • Singing karaoke
  • Archery
  • Shopping
  • Washing the car
  • Making a sandwich
  • Taking a shower
  • Brushing your teeth
  • Using a jump rope
  • Doing karate
  • Climbing a ladder
  • Surfing
  • Swimming
  • Putting on makeup
  • Rowing a boat
  • Petting a cat
  • Bowling

Difficult action Charades ideas:

  • Drinking out-of-date milk
  • Doing the laundry
  • Eating spaghetti
  • Taking the dog for a walk
  • Taking an exam
  • Playing Hide and Seek
  • Making a cup of coffee
  • Riding a roller coaster
  • Watching a scary movie
  • Climbing a mountain
  • Catching a cold
  • Buying shoes that are too small
  • Cutting down a tree
  • Forgetting your keys
  • Ordering a pizza
  • Playing a board game
  • Eating spicy food
  • Winning a race
  • Solving a Rubik’s Cube
  • Going camping
  • Making cheese

Charades ideas - Twitter emoji art of a book

Book Charades ideas

Easy book Charades ideas:

  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar
  • Rapunzel
  • The Secret Garden
  • Dungeons and Dragons
  • The Witches
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
  • Little Women
  • The Cat in the Hat
  • Of Mice and Men
  • Frankenstein
  • Dracula
  • The Lord of the Rings
  • Lord of the Flies
  • Holes
  • War and Peace
  • The Bell Jar
  • The Shining
  • The Turn of the Screw
  • Goodnight Moon
  • The Tiger Who Came To Tea
  • The War of the Worlds
  • Captain Underpants
  • Animal Farm

Challenging book Charades ideas:

  • The Bible
  • The Thursday Murder Club
  • The Wind in the Willows
  • Charlotte’s Web
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  • The Wizard of Oz
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
  • Macbeth
  • The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
  • Dune
  • The Grapes of Wrath
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles
  • Through the Looking Glass
  • The Gruffalo
  • The Hobbit
  • Great Expectations
  • A Streetcar Named Desire
  • Pride and Prejudice
  • A Tale of Two Cities
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray
  • Beloved
  • The Catcher in the Rye

Charades ideas - Twitter emoji art of a television

Television Charades ideas

Easy television Charades ideas:

  • Friends
  • Rugrats
  • Peppa Pig
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  • How I Met Your Mother
  • Ben 10
  • Sherlock
  • Breaking Bad
  • Game of Thrones
  • House of the Dragon
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Lost
  • Doctor Who
  • The X Files
  • Star Trek
  • The Walking Dead
  • House
  • Batman
  • Firefly
  • Archer
  • The Office
  • Mad Men
  • Slow Horses

Difficult television Charades ideas:

  • Cheers
  • Succession
  • The Expanse
  • Better Call Saul
  • Battlestar Galactica
  • The Simpsons
  • The Last of Us
  • Stranger Things
  • Peaky Blinders
  • Boardwalk Empire
  • Band of Brothers
  • Bojack Horseman
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
  • Twin Peaks
  • South Park
  • The Queen’s Gambit
  • The Sopranos
  • The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
  • Teletubbies
  • Grey’s Anatomy
  • The Good Place
  • Survivor
  • Saturday Night Live
  • You

Charades ideas - Twitter emoji art of a movie clackerboard

Movies Charades ideas

Easy movies Charades ideas:

  • Frozen
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • The Dark Knight
  • Fight Club
  • The Silence of the Lambs
  • Babe
  • Alien
  • Toy Story
  • Scarface
  • Jurassic Park
  • Gone with the Wind
  • Kung Fu Panda
  • Jaws
  • Chicken Run
  • Star Wars
  • Psycho
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
  • Up
  • Taxi Driver
  • Ghostbusters

Challenging movies Charades ideas:

  • Pulp Fiction
  • Reservoir Dogs
  • Full Metal Jacket
  • The Thing
  • Finding Nemo
  • Despicable Me
  • Spider Man: Into the Spiderverse
  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
  • Back to the Future
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark
  • The Exorcist
  • Donnie Darko
  • The Terminator
  • Get Out
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Gladiator
  • Trainspotting
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  • Apocalypse Now
  • Avengers: Endgame

Charades ideas - Twitter emoji art of sheet music

Songs Charades ideas

Easy songs Charades ideas:

  • Mary Had a Little Lamb
  • Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
  • London Bridge is Falling Down
  • I Want to Hold Your Hand
  • Running Up That Hill
  • Rocket Man
  • The Final Countdown
  • Creep
  • Bad Guy
  • Jump
  • Dancing Queen
  • Lean on Me
  • Ring of Fire
  • Poison
  • Umbrella
  • Baby Shark
  • Free Bird
  • Bad Romance
  • Over the Rainbow
  • Flowers
  • Heart of Glass

Difficult song Charades ideas:

  • Smells Like Teen Spirit
  • Rolling in the Deep
  • Stairway to Heaven
  • Vogue
  • The Sound of Silence
  • Wish You Were Here
  • Single Ladies
  • Sympathy for the Devil
  • Ace of Spades
  • The Phantom of the Opera
  • Blue Suede Shoes
  • Cruel Summer
  • Circle of Life
  • Uptown Funk
  • Old Town Road
  • Smoke on the Water
  • Born to be Wild
  • Dancing in the Dark
  • Smooth Criminal
  • Wonderwall

Charades ideas - Twitter emoji art of a Christmas Tree

Christmas Charades ideas

Easy Christmas Charades ideas:

  • Building a snowman
  • Wrapping a present
  • Elf
  • Eating Christmas dinner
  • A Christmas Carol
  • Kissing under mistletoe
  • Silent Night
  • The Little Drummer Boy
  • Santa Baby
  • Decorating the Christmas tree
  • Pulling crackers

Challenging Christmas Charades ideas:

  • Miracle on 34th Street
  • It’s a Wonderful Life
  • Christmas Eve
  • Advent calendar
  • Love Actually
  • The Grinch
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas
  • Away in a Manger
  • Fairytale of New York
  • Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer

Charades ideas - Twitter emoji of a mouse

Disney Charades ideas

Easy Disney Charades ideas:

  • The Little Mermaid
  • Under the Sea
  • Circle of Life
  • The Princess and the Frog
  • The Lion King
  • The Fox and the Hound
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
  • DuckTales
  • Sleeping Beauty
  • Pinocchio
  • The Jungle Book
  • The Muppets
  • Brave
  • Toy Story 2
  • Cars
  • Monsters Inc

Hard Disney Charades ideas:

  • When You Wish Upon a Star
  • Tangled
  • Let It Go
  • The Bare Necessities
  • The Emperor’s New Groove
  • We Don’t Talk About Bruno
  • Lilo and Stitch
  • A Whole New World
  • Ratatouille
  • The Black Cauldron
  • Colors of the Wind
  • Lady and the Tramp
  • Do You Want to Build a Snowman
  • You’re Welcome
  • Peter Pan

Running out of game night ideas? Here are the party board games and party card games we’d recommend. We can also introduce you to our favorite gateway games.