The great word game

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Writers and editors are among the most dedicated (read: obsessive) fans of word games. (I play Scrabble once a week — a relatively low frequency that may indicate only a mild addiction.) As the name of an old Reader’s Digest feature suggests, they enrich your word power, but they’re also fun. Here is a roster of some of the most entertaining games, from traditional contests like Password to innovative variations like Upwords. Most games listed have children’s versions, and many are available in both analog and digital form.

1. Apples to Apples
Players take turns judging which noun selected by a player from a hand of cards, each labeled with a noun, best matches — on criteria such as funniest, most appropriate, or least appropriate — an adjective printed on another card. (Cards)

2. Balderdash
Players take turns crafting fake definition for obscure words in the hope that others will select the false meaning from a set of possible definitions. (Cards)

3. Boggle
Players take turns jumbling a four-by-four grid of letter cubes, and all players try to form as many words as they can from letters displayed on adjacent cubes. (Letter cubes).

4. Bulls-Eye
Players create words from cards labeled with single letters; they take turns rolling a die to determine the word length that earns points for each round, then advance tokens on a board according to how many points they earned. (Cards and board with tokens)

5.Catch Phrase
Players take turns providing teammates with clues to the identity of a secret word before a timer goes off. (Handheld electronic timer with a database of words)

6. Password
Players try to get teammates to identify a secret word by providing one-word clues; teams take turns, and the number of points awarded for a correct guess decreases with each failed attempt. (Cards)

7. Scattergories
Players list as many words belonging to a category and starting with a given letter as they can. (Cards)

8. Scrabble
Players use letter tiles to form words they can attach to words already placed on a grid ; they rack up points based on the relative values of the letters and of grid squares that, when used, multiply the value of letters or words. (Board and letter tiles)

9. Scrabble Upwords
Players form words by placing letter tiles on a board, but, unlike in Scrabble, all letters have equal value, and bonuses are earned by forming new words by placing new tiles on top of some existing ones. (Board with letter tiles)

10. Taboo
Players try to get teammates to guess a word by providing other word clues, but they are prohibited from using a list of the most obvious clues. (Cards)

11. Text Twist
Players form as many words as possible from a randomly generated group of letters before a timer runs out. (Computer)

12. Word Blur
Players use word tiles to prompt teammates to correctly guess a secret word. (Tiles)

13. Word Zigzag
In this Boggle-like game with a grid of letters (unlike as in Boggle, in this game, the size of the grid is variable), players attempt to find as many strings of letters that form words as they can. Not to be confused with Zig-Zag, described below. (Application, or paper and pencil)

14. Words with Friends
This high-tech multiplayer variation on Scrabble, which has achieved phenomenal success thanks, in part, to a number of celebrity aficionados, allows multiple simultaneous games with known or unknown opponents. (Application)

15. Zig-Zag
Players try to guess each other’s secret words by testing how many letters of another word are in the secret word, and where the letters in common are positioned. (This game seems to be out of print, but used copies are available online, or prospective players could recreate the game materials from descriptions.)

Update: Looking for more? We created another list with 50 more great word games, so check that out

FAQ: Vocabulary Games

Here are answers to common questions about vocabulary games and activities.

What are vocabulary games?

Vocabulary games are word and language games you can play with students, coworkers, or family and friends. These games challenge players to hunt for words or definitions, brainstorm terms, deduce phrases based on clues, or create words under certain conditions. Language games are a great way to teach new vocabulary and help students practice recognizing and using new words. These activities are also known as “vocabulary building games” and “vocab games”, and are similar to “word games” and “letter games”.

What are some fun word games for groups?

Some fun word games for groups include Pictionary, Tree or Bob Ross, and word scrambles.

What are some online vocabulary games?

By using virtual meeting software like Zoom, you can play any word game online. Some good virtual vocabulary games include Scrabble, Scattergories, and online crossword puzzles.

What are good ESL word games?

The best ESL word games are easy to understand and play yet expand the vocabularies of participants. Good ESL word games include word association, word searches, and hangman.

What are fun ways to teach vocabulary?

Word games are one of the most fun and easy ways to teach vocabulary. While some kids get frustrated with straightforward reading or language exercises, word games disguise vocabulary lessons as a fun challenge. Plus, playing language games together is a great teamwork exercise.

A couple of weeks ago I included Scrabble as one of the three “marquee games” of the tabletop world. Like Monopoly and Risk, it epitomizes the concept of “board game” in most people’s eyes. I grew up loving and playing tons of Scrabble and Boggle, mainly with my mother—who still loves to play them. So they occupy a special place in my heart. 

On BGG, the Word Games category includes many games like Codenames which definitely feature words as a central mechanic…and yet I personally would not call them word games. 

To me word games are about letter manipulation; in other words, the challenge of creating or changing words from individual tiles, cards, or dice. The earliest “word game” in the BGG database is Karuta, a Japanese card game from the 1600’s–but it is basically a variation of the classic Concentration memory game which has been around forever. The next earliest word game, however, is Ortho, from 1783, and it’s definitely a letter manipulator. It consists of a deck made up of letter cards, each of which has been given “certain powers”; players form words with the cards, with an emphasis on “correction in spelling”. By 1899 you had Letters and Anagrams, published by none other than Parker Brothers, with letters on individual tiles which were drawn randomly trying to create words.

Scrabble came along fifty years later, in 1948, and from the start proved so popular that it sucked almost all the oxygen out of the genre to the exclusion of all else. Probe, from 1964, did pretty well, but it wasn’t until Boggle arrived in 1972 that Scrabble had any competition. And although Boggle remains very popular today it doesn’t have its own dictionary, annual Official Tournament, or even a very good app.

Then in 2006 Bananagrams arrived on the scene. The game had been around (as Pick Two) since the early 90s, but it took some streamlining of rules and scoring–and a unique zipper carrying case–to give it the visibility and cachet it needed to carve its own niche. 

Today word games tend to get short shrift by modern tabletoppers. I think there are several reasons for this. The first is the ongoing de-emphasis on spelling norms in education (yes, I know that’s a generalization) and pop culture itself (texting, social media, etc.). Scrabble has itself contributed to this de-emphasis by including more and more words in its official dictionary, to the point that it seems like almost any two-letter combo is now legal–how different from the days of my youth! But in a world where spelling doesn’t matter so much, word games lose their lustre. You need some agreed-upon spellings to keep the playing field level and provide a challenge—don’t you? (Not a rhetorical question. What do you think?)

The second, more prosaic reason from a design point of view is the difficulty in making word games “sexy” looking on the table, to compete with the Rising Suns and Wingspans out there. The classic Scrabble board is about as bland as you can get. Tiles and cards on their own can only provide so much eye-candy. And the troika of Scrabble, Boggle, and Bananagrams are so popular that anyone shopping for a word game has very little incentive to look any further.

And yet here I am with five suggestions for “letter manipulation games” that deserve your attention. Each of them puts a unique twist on the genre and rewards budding philologists with good gameplay. Here they are in chronological order:

What’s My Word (1972): I remember playing this as a kid and then wondering whatever happened to it. Then in 2010 Gryphon Games re-released it and I was ecstatic to rediscover it. What’s My Word is a two-player game like Mastermind but with words instead of coloured pegs. Each player thinks of a secret six- or seven- letter word and take turns guessing, with guesses accruing points depending on their accuracy. The cool thing is that your guesses have to be words, too, and at first can only be three or four letters long, and the response from your opponent is ambiguous enough that you really have to think through various possibilities. The game rewards logical thinking as much or more than knowing obscure words. Totally portable, playable on an airplane or in line at the store, What’s My Word is a great find. It’s creator clearly had a knack for two-player games, as he also designed Bridgette, a brilliant two-player version of Bridge, and Solitaire for Two, which does the same thing for Klondike.

Paperback (2014)/Hardback (2018): Both are deckbuilding games by Tim Fowers and with the same graphic sensibility of his excellent co-op game Burgle Brothers. Fowers hits all the right notes (typewriter keys) here, with lots of wild cards and special abilities on cards to make words easy to construct–but making long and high-scoring words is more of a challenge, which is just as it should be. I think Hardback is a better game because it adds “faction abilities” which encourages buying cards of the same “font” for their synergies, as well as ways to push your luck and increase hand size. If you’re looking for a game for your Scrabble-loving friend to introduce them to deckbuilding and tabletop in general, these are great choices. There are also apps for both games available for iOS and Android (very unchallenging AI, unfortunately).

SSH (2015) is one of the games in Chris Handy’s first “Chewing Gum Games” set: games that come in Juicy-Fruit-sized boxes that provide excellent bang for your buck. SSH is neat because it’s a co-operative variation of the classic game of Ghost: two to four players are dealt a hand of cards from a deck consisting of the alphabet (minus the vowels, which sit on the table available to all). The aim is to use up all the cards by spelling words one letter at a time. But the catch is there is no talking allowed (hence the name SSH). It’s quite a hard game to win, particularly with just two players. But the randomness of the initial deal, and the fact you can only use each letter once, make for a great challenge.

Letter Tycoon (2015) adds a layer of simple economic rules to spice things up. Each player has a hand of letter cards, and there are three Community cards in the middle. On your turn you play a word–the longer the better–to earn money and stock (the latter not spendable but earning VP at end of game. Then you can take out a “patent” on one of the letters you used that turn. From then on, whenever someone uses that letter, they must pay you a buck. The most common letters require the most money up front (“E” costs $10, for example) but theoretically earn you the most in the long run (of course, other players will try to avoid using patented letters where possible). Some of the more obscure letters give you pretty awesome powers if you patent them, so in those cases you’re investing for the power rather than income. All in all Letter Tycoon is a neat hybrid game that encourages out-of-the-box word construction.

Word Domination (2017), like Letter Tycoon above, adds another mechanic (in this case, simple area-control) to make gameplay more interesting. Each player is a supervillain attempting to dominate the grid of letter tiles, some of which have special abilities. It takes two turns to lock down a tile–it can be stolen from you in the interim. And endgame scoring is based on having stolen contiguous groups of tiles so knowing the longest and most obscure words doesn’t automatically translate into victory. This separates Word Domination from the rest of the word game pack. With advanced rules each villain has special powers, and co-operative and solo modes are also included. Designer Jeff Beck (no, not that Jeff Beck) deserves plaudits for this unique design.

Of course they are! While the concept of word games might sound kind of dull, take a second to think about all the kinds of great word games that you played growing up. Games like Word Search and Hangman are absolute classics that almost everyone has played and loved! 

There are plenty of riffs on word games on our Word Games Playlist! Pretty much all of our playlists on Coolmath Games have fun spins on the ordinary genre, and the Word Games Playlist is no exception. Several titles are more like regular games that happen to have words as a part of them. As mentioned before, the game Misspelled is a game where you use magic to get through the levels. By spelling words correctly, you will be rewarded with abilities like extra platforms and more jumps. A few other games like this include Candy Word and Word Worm, both of which make spelling a whole lot more fun than you would think possible.

Maybe best of all, word games will improve your spelling without it feeling like school. Getting to learn while having fun can often be difficult, but word games are a great way to learn in an exciting way. Who knows, maybe playing something like Grabble or Word Detector will help you get a little bit better of a grade in your next spelling test without even feeling like you were studying. 

A list of fun English word games for kids to help improve children’s spelling, reading, and vocabulary. This list of word games for kids includes word games that encourage conversation and early literacy that you can play on the spot or prepare yourself with just some paper and pencil.

Why are Word Games Good For Kids?

Word games and vocabulary games for kids are great because they get kids talking and using language while having fun. When you make a learning activity fun, kids don’t realise they are learning.

For reluctant learners, playing these word games can help and motivate them to want to play and learn more.

*This post may contain affiliate links, read more here.

10 Fun Word Games for Kids

Many of these word games for kids can be prepared easily at home with materials you already have. However if you don’t have time to prepare your own, you can also purchase a range of fun word games for kids HERE.

1. Hang Man

Probably one of the most popular word games for kids is the popular Hang Man. Player 1 thinks of a word and Player 2 has to guess it before they get “hung.”

Player 1 writes spaces for letters are written on the page so they know how many letters there are in the word. Player 2 proceeds to choose a letter they think may be in the word.

If it is correct Player 1 writes the letter down where it goes. If it is incorrect Player 1 draws part of the “hangman”. If the drawing is complete by the time Player 2 guesses, then Player 1 wins.

2. I spy

A really easy and fun word game for kids is I spy. You don’t need anything for this game except your imagination.

Player 1 thinks of a word and tells the others the first letter. “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with __” The other players need to guess the word. Whoever wins gets to be the spy!

This is a really great car game for kids too and helps to build vocabulary.

3. Bingo

Such an easy word game to prepare for kids. There are some really good versions on Amazon HERE. You can purchase the game, or use it as an example to make your own.

Draw a square grid on a page and choose a theme. Write out some words using the theme. Eg, beach: swimming, sand castles, water, sea shells, dolphin, sunbeds, picnic etc.

Make an extra copy of the words ensuring there are a few extra than the amount on the page. Cut them up into squares and put in a bowl scrunched up.

Take turns in pulling out a word and reading it out loud, then finding it on your page. The first person to find all of the words calls out Bingo and is the winner.

This fun word game for kids helps with reading and talking aloud.

4. Word Family Game

This game requires children to rhyme. Select one word and everyone needs to write as many words as they can that rhyme with that word. Eg. If the word is “Cat”, answers could be: hat, bat, rat, sat etc.

This is a great word game to help build kids vocabulary and help their language skills.

5. Word Search

Another fun but challenging word game for kids is a word search. Draw a grid of 10 x 10 squares and place as many words as you can within the grid. Words can go up, down, or diagonal, and letters can overlap to be used more than once.

Create a list on the side or bottom of the page of the words you have entered. Then once you cannot fit anymore words in, fill the blank boxes with random letters.

Kids will need to find the words as quick as possible. This can be a fun word game to do individually or as a team. For kids who like to compete, you can make identical grids and see who finishes first.

This word game encourages persistence and helps to improve their literacy skills.

6. Unscramble the words

A simple word game for children that will get them really thinking! Write a list of words down on paper but scramble the letter order while writing. Kids will need to look at the letters and try to work out what the word is and guess it.

This can be quite a competitive word game, but it helps to really get their mind ticking.

7. Scategories

While this is also an official board game, (which you can find online here) you can also make it yourself quite easily. Each player has a piece of paper and pencil.

Select 10-15 categories. These can be anything you like but remember they should be popular enough that you can guess something with most letters. Eg. Country, Movie, Body Part, Actor or Actress etc.

Once you have your categories it is time to choose a letter. Without a dice, the easiest way is to write the letters randomly on a piece of paper.

Then one person closes their eyes and points to a letter. When the letter has been chosen, players have 2 minutes to fill in the gaps with something in each category starting with that letter.

Winner is the one with the most filled in at the end, or the first to finish.

This is a really fun and competitive word game for kids that helps to improve their vocabulary, spelling, and conversation skills.

8. Words within a word

This word game requires kids to create their own words. Choose one really long word with at least 8-10 letters. The longer the better.

The aim of this word game is for kids to try to make a list of small words out of the letters of the long word. So for example the word COMPUTER includes: put, cot, term, core, mop, top, pet. Etc.

This is a really fun word game to help children’s spelling skills.

9. I am going on a picnic

A fun word game to help with your child’s memory and to get them talking.

One person starts and says “I am going on a picnic and I will bring some… fruit”

The next person says what the first person said, and adds something of their own. “I am going on a picnic and I will bring some fruit, and some sandwiches.

The next person says what the first, and second person said, and adds something of their own. “I am going on a picnic and I will bring some fruit, some sandwiches and some ice-cream.

You continue on and on and it gets more difficult to remember everything. We usually can get to at least seven or eight, and surprisingly my pre-schooler can often remember more than me!

This conversational game helps with memory, and also learning new vocabulary.

10. Story prompts

This word game involves making up a story by taking turns in saying sentences. One person starts the story, and says the first sentence. The second person continues the story with another sentence, and so on.

The stories can become very interesting as each person has different ideas. Bilingual flashcards are great for this or you can find a great version online HERE.

This conversation activity helps kid’s imagination, as well as building their vocabulary.

Other Fun Learning Resources for Kids?

If you love these English word games, check out these posts!

English Classroom Games – To play in class or at home
Knock Knock Jokes – To get the kids laughing
Best Board Games for Kids – Educational and fun
Top Book Sets for Kids – For all ages

Which English word games do you play with your kids?

These fun English word games for kids can be played with children of all ages and also with adults just by adapting certain aspects of the game to suit the age of the player.

This list of word games for kids will keep kids entertained for hours on end without feeling like they are actually learning.