60 Easy Charades Prompts

Keep things simple with these easy Charades words and phrases.

Charades has been around for many years (since the 1700s, in fact). However, that doesn’t mean that everyone is a pro at playing it. Whether it’s because of age, cultural differences, or simple inexperience, some players may find the game overly challenging… at least, without some helpful adjustments.

Charades: The Complete Guide

Thinking of playing the classic pantomime party game? Sounds like… fun!

That’s where the following easy Charades words and phrases come in handy. These prompts are ideal for school-age children and new players, and to make things easy on you, the organizer, I’ve even included a printable you can use for your game. Read on for the full word list and some bonus ideas on how to make Charades more approachable for players of all stripes.

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Easy Charades Prompts

Here’s a list of less challenging Charades prompts you can use for your game, sorted by category. To make things extra easy, you can allow the actor to reveal the category before the timer starts (see below for more info).

Person or Character

Animal or Thing

Activity or Action

Toning Down the Difficulty

In addition to using easier prompts, there are several other ways to lower the difficulty of Charades for beginners, school-age kids, and others. Here are a few ideas:

Reveal the category. Charades veterans know that the prompts typically fall into a handful of categories. By longstanding convention, these categories can be communicated through established gestures (like pretending to operate an old timey camera to indicate the phrase is a movie title). To make things easier, you can simply have the actor state the category before the timer starts.

Give them more time. In the rules outlined on this site, teams are given one minute to guess the right answer. To make things easier, you could give them two or three minutes. Not only will players have a better chance of getting the correct answer, but they won’t feel quite so pressured.

No stealing. In Charades, teams often have a chance to “steal” a point if the other team doesn’t get their phrase in the allotted time. If you have players of varying Charades skills and experience, you might want to nix this rule, as it could lead to a lopsided game.

Lower the stakes. For a more lighthearted game of Charades, consider playing cooperatively. For cooperative play, one person acts while the rest of the group guesses. Points can be awarded to both the actor and the player who guesses correctly. Alternatively, don’t keep score at all!