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Games like Pictionary — online, on your phone and with words

Pictionary works because of one simple rule: you know the secret, you can’t say it, and the clock is running. Change what you are not allowed to do and you get a whole family of games. Here are the best of them, sorted by how you want to play — plus a list of word ideas if you just want to play the classic tonight.

What makes a game “like Pictionary”

Every game on this page has the same three parts. One player knows something the others don’t: a word, a phrase, a picture. They have to get it across under a restriction: no talking, no letters, no obvious words. And the others race the clock to guess.

In Pictionary the restriction is “draw, don’t speak”. In charades it is “act, don’t speak”. In Taboo it is “speak, but not these five words”. The fun is always the same: watching someone’s brain find a way around the rule.

Drawing and guessing games you can play online

These are the closest to the original: someone draws, everyone else guesses.

• Skribbl.io — a browser game: one player draws a word, the rest type their guesses, and the faster you guess the more points you get. You can make a private room for friends and add your own word list.
• Gartic Phone — the telephone game with drawings. You write a sentence, the next player draws it, the next describes the drawing, and so on. The fun is in the replay at the end, when you see how “a dog at a wedding” turned into something else. Best with four or more players.
• Drawful — from Jackbox Games: everyone draws a strange prompt on their phone, then the others invent fake titles and try to spot the real one. You need one shared screen, so it suits a living room or a streamed call.
• Quick, Draw! — Google’s experiment where you draw and a neural network tries to guess your doodle within 20 seconds. It’s a solo game, but it is a good warm-up and surprisingly addictive.

Games like Pictionary but with words

If nobody in your group can draw — or you are tired of stick figures — swap the pencil for words. These games keep the guessing and the clock, but the restriction is on language.

• Taboo — describe a word without saying it or the five related words printed on the card. “Beach” without sand, sea, sun, summer or swimming. See our Taboo rules and word cards.
• Codenames — a spymaster gives one-word clues that link several words on the table, and the team has to find them without touching the assassin card. Slower and more strategic than Pictionary.
• Just One — a cooperative game: everyone writes a one-word clue for the guesser, but identical clues cancel each other out, so you have to be clever and different.
• Charades — the original “no words” game, and still the best one for a big loud group. Apps like Heads Up! put the cards on your phone.

Pictionary in reverse: you describe, AI draws

Speakasso turns Pictionary around. You don’t draw anything. You get a few seconds to look at a famous painting — The Starry Night, The Great Wave, Girl with a Pearl Earring — and then you describe it in words, by voice or by typing. An AI image generator draws a new picture from exactly what you said, and an AI judge scores from 0 to 100 how close it is to the original.

The Pictionary twist is still there: the title, the artist and the key objects are forbidden words. Say “sunflowers” while describing Sunflowers and you lose 15 points. So you describe what you see instead: “a clay pot on a yellow ledge, full of big shaggy yellow flowers, some drooping, against a pale yellow wall”.

You play duels: against a friend with a link, or against players online. Both of you describe the same painting, the AI draws both versions, and you see side by side whose words painted it better. Some people call this kind of game AI Pictionary; more about how it works in AI drawing games.

Games like Pictionary for two players

Most drawing games are built for groups, but a few work well with just two.

• Classic Pictionary for two: play cooperatively against the clock. One draws, one guesses, and you count how many words you get through in two minutes. Swap and try to beat your record.
• Codenames Duet — the two-player cooperative version of Codenames.
• Speakasso duels — made for two: you and a friend describe the same painting, and your head-to-head score is kept, so there is always a rematch.
• Describe and draw — no app needed: one person describes a picture without showing it, the other draws what they hear, then you compare. It is hilarious and a great test of how precisely you speak.

Pictionary word ideas

Good Pictionary words are things you can see: objects, animals, places and actions. Abstract words (“freedom”, “Tuesday”) are frustrating for everyone. Mix easy words with a few hard ones, and use phrases for experienced players.

Easy: sun, house, cat, tree, fish, car, apple, rain, bed, flower, boat, ball, moon, snake, key, bird, cake, hat, shoe, clock, star, dog, cup, book, chair

Medium: lighthouse, volcano, jellyfish, skateboard, waterfall, snowman, parachute, cactus, mermaid, windmill, dentist, pirate ship, campfire, rainbow, tornado, spider web, hot air balloon, penguin, castle, giraffe, igloo, octopus, robot, treasure map, astronaut

Hard: echo, jet lag, gravity, homesick, traffic jam, deadline, reflection, nightmare, time zone, recycling, déjà vu, blind date, rush hour, stage fright, allergy, shadow, eclipse, whisper, sunburn, headache

Actions: sneezing, juggling, fishing, sleepwalking, ice skating, proposing, sunbathing, knitting, surfing, climbing, bowling, yawning, hiccups, slipping on a banana, walking the dog

Phrases: a fish out of water, raining cats and dogs, break the ice, the elephant in the room, head in the clouds, piece of cake, spill the beans, cold feet, under the weather, once in a blue moon

Famous paintings (hard mode): The Starry Night, The Scream, Mona Lisa, The Great Wave, American Gothic, The Persistence of Memory, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Birth of Venus, The Last Supper, Water Lilies

Questions