Guessing games are great to use as warmers, fillers, and review activities. Not only are they a lot of fun, but they are also fantastic for learning vocabulary and grammar.
On this page we list the 10 super fun guessing games for kids. Although these activities are mainly aimed at young learners, many of these guessing game ideas can be easily adapted to use with adults and teenagers.
For more classroom game ideas, check out our other post, 10 Incredibly Fun Vocabulary Activities For ESL Kids.
1: Guess the Word Games
Whichever topic you are teaching, a simple guess the word game, although simple, can be very effective. Show students some flashcards and ask them to repeat after you. Once students have practiced enough, choose one flashcard, and don’t show the students. Then ask them to try to guess what the word is while using the target expression.
For example, if you teaching animal words, when students guess they can ask the teacher ‘Is it an elephant?’, and the teacher can respond ‘Yes, it is. / No, it isn’t.’.
2: Hidden Picture Guessing Games
In this guessing game there is a picture hidden behind some color squares. As you click the squares the image is slowly revealed and students must try to guess what it is.
This guess the picture game is a great way to introduce or review new words with students and can be used with any vocabulary. For hidden picture PPT games on many topics, and an editable template, click here.
3: Guess the Picture (Pictionary)
This simple guessing game idea needs little to no prep. All you need for this game is something to draw on. To play as a whole class, ask a student to draw something on the board from the lesson and ask students to guess what the picture is of.
To make it more fun, divide the class into two / three teams. Give each team 30 seconds or so to guess as many pictures as they can. This game is a lot of fun and young learners especially love showing off their artistic skills.
4: Guess the Mystery Object
Using real objects in the classroom is a great way to connect the vocabulary and grammar that students are learning to the real world. A great way to do that is with this guess the object game. To play, you need a bag or a box to put the mystery objects in.
Invite students one by one to come up to the front of the class and reach into the bag/box and feel the object inside. Without looking at the object, they must try to guess what the mystery object is. This can lead to some hilarious guesses! This activity is great for both kids and older ESL students.
5: Online Guessing Games
In these online guessing games, students must use ‘Telepathy’ to read the teacher’s mind and find out the answer. Of course, your students can’t really read minds, but kids love pretending that they can.
In these guessing games each answer as two possible answers and students must choose ONE and write it down. If they get it correct, they get a point. If they get it wrong, they don’t. Many online guessing games can be found on our Activity Videos page.
This game can be played individually or in pairs / small teams. For a Telepathy game PPT template, and a printable answer worksheet, click here.
6: ‘I Spy’ Guessing Games
When you were a child you probably played a variation of this game at one time or another. In the classic (British) version of I Spy, one person would look around and choose an object that they can see and then say ‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with (b).’. At which point the other people must try to guess what object beginning with the letter b he/she is thinking of.
This kind of guessing game can be used in your English class to review many different words and topics. For example, if teaching colors, one student can look around and choose an object and then say ‘I see something (green)’. The other students must then guess what green thing they are thinking of.
Or, if you are teaching adjectives, one student can look around and choose something and then describe it using adjectives. For example, ‘I see something big and heavy.’.
7: ‘Act It Out’ Guessing Game (Charades)
In the classic version of charades people would use actions instead of words to act out the title of a movie, book, play, or song. In the English classroom, this kind of activity can be used to review key vocabulary and expressions that students have learned.
To play, write down the key words / phrases from the lesson on pieces of paper and put them all in a small container. Then divide the class into 2/3 teams. One person from each team will choose a piece of paper and act out the word without speaking or making any noise. If the team guesses correctly, then they get a point.
8: Guess The Word To ‘Save The Teacher’ (Hangman)
Hangman is a classic classroom game in which students must try to guess the word the teacher is thinking of by guessing letters of the alphabet. If students guess the wrong word then the teacher would begin drawing a picture of a hanging man. If students get it wrong too many times and the teacher completes the picture, then the students lose.
Although this drawing is just a simple stick figure, the idea of showing children a drawing of a man hanging from his neck seems quite gruesome to me, and not appropriate for kids. As a fun alternative to hangman, try ‘Save The Teacher’ using the video above. The rules are exactly the same as hangman.
To play, think of a word and draw a small horizontal line corresponding to each letter of that word. Then ask students to guess the word by first guessing letters from the alphabet. If they guess correctly, then write it in the correct space on the board. If students guess wrong play the video and the fuse will get closer to the rocket. When students guess wrong too many times, the teacher and the rocket will blast off into space!
9: ‘What Am I?’ Guessing Game
In this guessing game, the teacher would think of something and then give students 3 clues as to what it is by saying sentences as if he/she is the object. For example, if the word the teacher is thinking of is ‘The Sun’ then the 3 clues he/she might say “I am hot. I am bright. You can’t see me at night. What am I?” This is a great way to reinforce students’ understanding of the lesson’s vocabulary and a fun review activity. For more ‘What am I? quizzes check out these ’40 What Am I?’ questions.
10: Guessing Games With Cards
Most ESL textbooks these days come with small word/picture cards at the back. If you’re not so lucky, you can download and print free mini-flashcards from our flashcards page. To play this game, ask students to make groups of 3/4. Then give each group a set of cards. Then one student from each group should close their eyes while the other members of the group point to one of the cards.
Then the student should open his/her eyes and guess what card they chose while using the target language. If he/she guesses correctly then they can keep that card. Then it’s the next students turn. The game finishes when all the cards are gone and the students with the most cards is the winner.
Thanks for reading. I hope you found some useful guessing game ideas for your next class. Before you go, don’t forget to check out our free other free games and activities including PowerPoint Games, Online Quizzes, and Online ESL Games.
You might have seen those rows of colored blocks on your social media timeline in recent weeks, but what do they mean?
They’re from a simple but immensely popular word game that has captivated the internet and led many players to share their results with social media followers. As of Sunday, the game had brought in more than 300,000 players.
The game is called Wordle, a word guessing game that tasks the player with correctly selecting a random five-letter word.
You only get six tries to guess the word, but the game will give you hints along the way.
You’ll start out by randomly guessing any five-letter word. From there, the game will tell you if each letter you guess is in the word and in the correct place (green), in the word but not in the correct place (yellow), or not in the word at all (gray).
Struggling at Wordle? 3 tips to mastering the viral word game
It certainly helps to have luck on your side when trying to crack the Wordle code, but it involves logic as well.
One of the key features of the game is that it only generates a new mystery word once every 24 hours. So, once you take a stab at figuring out today’s word, you won’t get a new word to guess until midnight.
That’s by design, game creator Josh Wardle told the New York Times.
“It’s something that encourages you to spend three minutes a day,” he told the Times. “And that’s it. Like, it doesn’t want any more of your time than that.”
If you want to give the game a try, here’s a link. It is free to play and does not require you to create login information.
The weirdest stuff we saw at CES 2022:John Deere’s self-driving tractor, robot masseuses
The game also offers a «hard mode,» which forces the player to use every letter marked with a yellow or green hint in every subsequent guess.
Watch out for spoilers, too. Everyone playing the game is trying to guess the same word, each day.
Once you finish the puzzle, the game gives you the option to share your results using a graphical depiction of how your game went. Pasted below are this author’s results from today’s puzzle, which was the 202nd edition of Wordle (hence the 202). He guessed today’s word in his fourth try out of six possible attempts (hence the 4/6).
Wordle 202 4/6
🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Follow Jay Cannon of USA TODAY on Twitter: @JayTCannon
Winter TV preview:9 new shows to watch, from ‘Pam & Tommy’ to ‘The Afterparty’
Personal computers aren’t dead yet:Laptops are showing new signs of life at CES
Wordle has been nothing short of a wonderful little gift from the heavens. A tiny word-guessing game that has taken over the internet in the blink of an eye. Which, honestly if you think about it is a delightful turn of events from the dreary seriousness we walked into 2022 with. There are no ads, it’s free to play and you get only one word per day. There’s a novelty in solving the daily Wordle that’s slowly becoming an essential part of everyone’s life.
It’s easy to get hooked on Wordle and hard to leave its miniature joys. You see the randomly aligned colored boxes staring at you from your phone, begging you to come and join the fun and you can’t help but submit to it. We understand you.
To play Wordle efficiently you need to know the ins and outs of it. Don’t worry, we’re here to guide you through Wordle’s rules so you can focus on guessing the daily word rather than letting simple rules bother your experience.
Related: How to Play Wordle [Beginner’s guide]
Wordle rules: All you need to know
Newcomer to the Wordle phenomena? Wordle will always stick a pop-up containing instructions every time a newcomer stumbles on their website: https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/. You can read these instructions again by visiting Wordle’s official website in private/incognito mode if you wish.
In the meantime, let’s get you up and running with Wordle’s Rules.
Wordle is not a time-sensitive game. While you get 24 hours to guess that day’s word, there is no other active countdown as you try to brainstorm your way into the most efficient guessing path. You can take your time. The goal is to spend anxiety-free 10-15 minutes every day and have fun along the way.
After each successful guess, Wordle will present you with your stats and a countdown for the next day’s word.
Everyone around the world gets the same word. This makes sharing your results on social media all the more fun as you can compare the unique guessing paths you and your friends took to arrive at the same destination.
Related: 8 Best ‘Wordle Helper’ Websites and Tips
You get 6 tries to guess the word of the day. In case you’re wondering if 6 tries are enough we’re here to assure you that, for a 5 letter word they’re more than enough.
All 6 guesses must be valid words according to Wordle’s dictionary, which is basically the set of all 5 letter words plucked from the English dictionary. If you enter an invalid word, Wordle won’t accept your input and you’ll have to enter again. If you have any doubts you can simply enter the word and Wordle will inform you whether your input was a valid one or not.
Every guess returns valuable information. Look at the picture below. A green square on S in our first guess implies that not only does S belongs in the answer but that it also occurs at the same place (1st place in our case). Same for G.
Yellow squares on R in our 1st guess and on A and U in our 2nd guess imply that those respective letters belong in the answer but not at those specific locations. For example, R belongs in the word but not at the 4th place, A and U also belong in the word but not at the 1st and last position respectively.
The ideal approach to solving Wordle is to use every bit of information you have before making your next guess. For example, in the above picture, we’ve already deduced 5 distinct letters that belong in the word (S, U, R, G, and A). Therefore your next intelligent guess should be the word itself.
Related: How to Download Wordle. Which Wordle is The Right One?
Wordle hard mode rules
In a surprising turn of events, Wordle has evolved into one of those online things that have the capability of bringing people together. People, you and us included, are inherently competitive and we can’t get enough of sharing and comparing our results on social media. But are you aware that Wordle offers an even harder playing mode for competitive players?
It’s entirely possible that you might already be using the Hard Mode rules subconsciously. For those who’re not aware of it, jump right in.
Hard Mode imposes further restrictions on the guesses you’re allowed to make. Gone are the days when you could ignore the alignment of green and yellow tiles from your previous guesses. In Hard Mode, you can no longer make random guesses and hope to arrive at the word by hit and trial. You have to use the hints received in your previous guesses while making future guesses.
For example, let’s say our first guess was STORY. It turns out S is the first letter of the answer and it also contains R. We can also deduce that R is not the 1st or the 4th letter. Therefore, if Hard Mode is toggled on, your next guess has to start with S and R needs to occur somewhere in it.
Let’s say our next guess is SABER. Wow! That revealed quite a lot of information. Our next guess needs to start with S and end with R. Not only that but A needs to be a part of it. It’s perfectly fine if your next guess has A as the 2nd letter again, even in Hard Mode.
Let’s say our next guess is SAGER.
You can now easily deduce that the only place left for A is 4th place. If you look close enough you’ll also find that Hard Mode has in fact helped you a ton in guessing the word.
Hard Mode is nothing special. In fact, its primary purpose is to streamline your guessing choices and help you get the best result you can. With time and experience, you will naturally adopt the Hard Mode rules as your normal Wordle routine.
Related: Wordle: 5-Letter Words With the Most Vowels
FAQs
Can I use the same guess twice in Wordle?
Yes, you can. Even the Hard Mode allows you to use the same guess twice. However, this serves no purpose and you will likely lose a try for nothing.
Can I toggle on the Hard Mode if I’ve already made a guess?
No, Wordle does not allow you to turn on the Hard Mode in the middle of a guessing session. Hard Mode’s purpose is to force players to use all the information acquired from their previous tries to improve their future guesses. The ability to toggle Hard Mode on or off in the middle of a session would defeat its purpose.
Is there a way I can track how well I did on Wordle?
Yes. Wordle has a lovely community of players and developers working together to improve the daily word-guessing experience. There’s a wonderful website called Scoredle which can track your Wordle performance. Simply enter your guesses on Scoredle’s website in the same order you did while solving the puzzle initially. This should give you a detailed analysis of your performance. You can see the possible guesses at every step and a detailed list of possible words before your last and correct guess. Look at the picture below, it seems we did pretty well.
Can I play older Wordle puzzles?
Yes, you can. Although not official, there’s a website made by Wordle fans that allows you to pick a date and play that specific date’s Worlde. Amazing right? This should help new players get a hang of the word-guessing phenomena. Refer to our detailed guide to know more about playing past Wordle games.
Related: How to Play Old Wordles
If you face any issues or have any more questions, feel free to drop them in the comments section below.
Related:
- Average Wordle Score and Stats: What Are They and How to Find Some
- How to Play Wordle in Excel
- How to Play Wordle Multiplayer With Friends
- What is the Average Number of Guesses in Wordle?
- How to Play Wordle Multiplayer With Friends
- What Does Wordle Score Mean?
- Is Wordle an app on iPhone or Android? Everything You Need To Know
- Wordle Same Letter Twice Rules Explained: How Does it Work?
- Does Everyone Get the Same Wordle?
If you’ve noticed lots of posts on Twitter containing a bunch of coloured boxes, then you have come across the latest word game sweeping (portions of) the internet: a pleasant little brainteaser named Wordle.
I regret finding Wordle because it’s going to bother me daily
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Wordle 185 3/6
— Paige Burton (@Paige_Burton) December 22, 2021
What is Wordle and how do I play?
Simply put, Wordle is a free word-guessing game available online: guess the five-letter word in six tries or fewer. Wordle explains its rules in a handy pop-up the first time you load the game, but it’s all fairly straightforward: if the letter from your guess isn’t in the target word, that letter will turn grey. If is in the word but not in the right position, it’ll turn yellow. If it’s in the word and in the right place, it will turn a nice shade of green. You have six goes to get it right – and if you get it right in one go, that’s weird/basically impossible.
There is only one puzzle available a day for everyone – sort of like a newspaper’s crossword or sudoku – so once you’ve finished the puzzle, you have to wait for the next.
Sounds simple. Why is it so popular?
Everyone is guessing the same word, and thus competing against each other each day – the reason it’s so popular is that you can easily share your results (the occasional bug notwithstanding):
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Wordle 183 4/6
— Patrick Lum (@jintor_au) December 19, 2021
Above, you can see how many guesses I took, which letters I got wrong and right, and even reverse-engineer how I arrived at the answer. Crucially, the results are spoiler-free; it tells you how I went without actually giving the solution. It’s also a bit of a knowing in-joke for those already playing, while outsiders ask “what’s with all the box emoji?”
trying to find a way to bully people over wordle without finding out what wordle is
— Naomi Higgins (@nomstrositi) December 23, 2021
It’s quick to play, easily shareable, and sparks conversations online about the solution – and how well everyone did.
Who made it?
Wordle is a project from Josh Wardle, an engineer at Reddit, who has (as Mark Serrels recalls for CNET) created some interesting experiments before – including the platform’s Button and Place. Wordle originally launched in mid-October, and only really started becoming popular last week after Wardle added the ability to share results.
Now everyone is playing it – and you can have a go too.
2022: you must show your daily Wordle solution for entry to shops and restaurants
2023: anyone who fails the daily Wordle is dragged out into the street and shot
— 🎄 scott 🎄 (@scottsues) December 22, 2021
If you are a frequent social media user and spend a lot of your time on Twitter, you have likely seen people sharing posts with green, yellow, and gray blocks with the title “Wordle”. Whether you are someone who’s wondering what Wordle is all about or just curious to know the history behind the viral puzzle game, we have detailed everything you should know about Wordle.
Wordle: Online Word Game Explained (2022)
Apart from explaining the Wordle game, its origins, and future, we have also added a method you can use to play the Wordle game without a daily limit. Having said that, let’s dive right in.
Table of Contents
What is Wordle, Anyway?
For the uninitiated, Wordle is a simple yet addictive word guessing game. Wordle is a browser-based free game, and hence, you can get started without having to sign up or download an app.
The game involves guessing a word in 6 tries, and everyone across the world will have the same word to guess in a given day. You only get one word to guess each day. You can check the next section for detailed instructions on how to play the game.
How to Play Wordle Online
The developer of Wordle (more on this below) has added a handy introductory pop-up to the website to help new players understand how the game works. The goal is to guess the word in 6 attempts. Once you randomly guess a word, you will see either green, yellow, or gray blocks on the letters of the word. And here’s what each color in Wordle depicts:
- The green block indicates that the letter is in the target word and is in the right position.
- Meanwhile, the yellow block hints that the letter belongs in the target word but is in the incorrect position.
- The gray block reveals that the letter is not in the target word.
You can play the game once a day, and you get a new word every day. This approach has built anticipation among users and helped in player retention.
Play Wordle in a web browser right now (Free)
Wordle: The Origins and Future
Wordle game is the creation of Brooklyn-based software engineer Josh Wardle. In an interview with the New York Times, Wardle revealed that the game was built for his partner who loves word games. Wardle subsequently released the game in October last year. Over the past few weeks, Wordle went viral and is played by thousands of people around the world every day.
As for what the future holds, the developer of Wordle has promised to keep the game free and ad-free. “I don’t understand why something can’t just be fun. I don’t have to charge people money for this and ideally would like to keep it that way,” Wardle told BBC.
Why is the Wordle Game Popular?
The popularity of Wordle can be credited to three major factors — simplicity, scarcity, and the community experience. Getting started with Wordle is fairly straightforward, and almost anyone can play Wordle regardless of their age. That, combined with the fact that you can play it just once a day, makes users come back to guess the new word.
Inspired by Spelling Bee and NYT crossword, this is exactly what the creator was going for. Another crucial factor is the shareability aspect, where users can easily share their results with their peers on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. We have even seen popular TV celebrities like Jimmy Fallon jump on the hype train as well.
Look, I don’t want to call myself a “hero” but…
🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Wordle 193 2/6— Adam Liaw (@adamliaw) December 29, 2021
On a personal note, I first came across Wordle on Twitter last week. After ignoring it in the beginning, I’ve been playing it for the past three days and liking it so far. In a world where leading game publishers are desperately looking to cash in on the next big thing (and failing at it), Wordle is a breath of fresh air. It has emerged as a viral word game that users enjoy playing.
Wordle: 3 Easy Tips and Tricks
Now that you know how the game works and are looking to join the growing number of Wordle users, here are some cool tips and tricks that will help you figure out the word quickly.
1. Choose your first word smartly: The most important thing in Wordle is the first word you choose as your guess to solve the puzzle. Now, you should remember two things – one, entering a word with distinct letters will be helpful, and second, entering two or three vowels in the first guess to get a good feel of the word.
For example, if you enter ARENA as your first guess, you are not fully utilizing your first guess by reusing A. Instead, we suggest you enter a world like RADIO, SPOIL, or MEDIA.
2. Same letter can appear twice: Yes, you read that right. If you are running out of letters and most of them have been grayed out, then there’s a good chance that letters repeat in your Wordle. You can get words like SPELL, SHEEP, or CARRY, which require you to input the same letter to guess the word correctly. We suggest you use this handy tip on your fourth or fifth try if you haven’t been able to find many green or yellow blocks until now.
3. Avoid typing excluded gray letters: This is one of the hardest things to remember and follow while solving a Wordle. If a letter has been grayed out, avoid reusing it in your next guess. You are only wasting a turn doing so. I made this mistake while guessing today’s word, as you can see in the screenshot above.
Play Wordle Without Daily Limit
In case you want to bypass the daily limit of Wordle and play infinite Wordle games every day, you could consider taking a look at Word Master. Built by software engineer Katherine Peterson, Word Master is an open-source project that replicates Wordle without the daily limit. If that interests you, you can check out Word Master from the link below.
Play Word Master (Free)
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is Wordle the same for everyone?
Yes, the target word in Wordle is the same for everyone on a given day.
Q: Is there only one Wordle a day?
To help retain a sense of scarcity, the developer has decided to restrict the Wordle game to one word a day. You can always come back the next day or try Word Master, which is essentially Wordle without daily limits.
Q: How to play past Wordles?
Since it is a daily word guessing game, you can’t play past Wordles, at least at the moment. We will have to wait to see if the creator of the game has plans to release an archive feature that will let anyone play previous Wordle games.
Q: Is Wordle an app?
No, the original Wordle game is not available as an app. You might find similar games on Google Play Store and App Store, but the actual game is free, browser-based, and has no ads.
Try Out the Viral Wordle Game
Will this be another viral game that no one will talk about in a few months? Probably, and that’s not really a bad thing. In fact, I remember writing about a word guessing game in January of 2020, and honestly, I haven’t played it since then. While Wordle’s popularity will undoubtedly fade away in a few months, it’s likely to stay relevant among word game lovers. Speaking of word games, you might find a few other word games in our linked roundup of the best multiplayer games.