Charades generator, a word for every turn.

A charades generator gives you a word or phrase to act out, so nobody has to invent one in the middle of the game. This one is a full game and not only a word: you choose categories and a level, the actor sees a hidden word, a big countdown runs, and the page keeps the score for up to four teams. It holds 621 different words and phrases in 11 categories, all written for this page, and it runs on a phone, a laptop or a TV.

How to use the charades generator

1. Under Words, tick the categories you want. All ticks every box and None clears them.
2. Choose a Level: Easy (kids), Medium (teens), Hard (adults), Easy and medium, or All levels.
3. Set the Round length, the number of Teams and the team names. Keep Hide the word until the actor taps ticked if you pass one phone around.
4. Press Start round. The card tells the guessers to look away. The actor presses Show my word and the clock starts.
5. The actor mimes the word without speaking. When the team guesses it, press Got it for one point. If it is too hard, press Skip.
6. When the buzzer sounds the card shows what the team got. Press Next team to hand over.

Press Pause if someone needs a moment. The word is hidden while the clock is paused, so nobody can read it. Press Full screen to fill the display. If you untick Play with a timer, the game becomes a plain word-at-a-time generator with Got it and Skip, and you can click a team to give it the point.

What is in the deck

Every category has three levels. Easy words are things a young child can act out, such as a frog or brushing your teeth. Medium adds things like the vacuum cleaner or a news reporter. Hard has phrases that need more acting skill, such as break the ice or a courtroom drama. Hard means harder to act out, not adult content. Movies and TV are described as scenes and famous people as roles, so the deck has no film titles, no brand names and no real people.

A few words appear in two categories, so the deck counts each word or phrase once. All 11 categories ticked at Easy and medium give a deck of 453 words; Easy alone has 223, Medium 231 and Hard 168.

Choosing a level for your group

• Young children: Easy, with Animals, Actions, Food and drink and Emotions. Set the round to 45 seconds or 1 minute and allow as many skips as you like.
• Family night: Easy and medium, all categories, 1 minute rounds, two teams.
• Teens and adults: All levels. Add Sayings and phrases and Movies and TV for the harder rounds, and limit skips to 3 so the choice matters.
• Work or class: Jobs, Actions and Places, 90 seconds, up to four teams. Add your own words, such as team in-jokes, in Add your own words and tick Mix my words into the deck.

A fair deck, no repeats

The words are dealt from a deck shuffled with your browser's secure random numbers, the kind used for passwords, with the shuffle made so every order is equally likely. A word does not come back until the whole deck has been used. The page then tells you and shuffles again. The line under the categories shows how many words match and how many are left in this deck.

Playing on a phone, a TV or a video call

On a phone, press Full screen so the word is as large as it can be. Where the browser allows it, the screen stays awake during a round. Sound is made by the page, with a tick for the last five seconds and a buzzer at the end. On a phone with the ring switch off, turn sound on in the phone or leave it off and watch the clock.

On a video call, the actor should open this page in a separate window that is not shared, press Show my word there, and act on camera. The other players shout guesses and the actor presses Got it.

Common problems

• No words match. Tick at least one category, or switch the level to All levels.
• The word shows too soon. Tick Hide the word until the actor taps.
• The clock looks late after a tab switch. The clock counts real time, so it catches up when you come back, but keep the tab in front during a round so the buzzer rings on time.
• The score is wrong. Click a team to switch to it, or press New game, scores to zero.

For a plain list of words, try the random word generator. To pick who goes first, use spin the wheel, split a big group with the team generator, or time a longer game with the online timer.