Teachers and parents know that if learning is a game, children will be eager to participate in the process. This is true for adults as well, and your vocabulary study can take many forms, including games and puzzles. You can have fun and learn new vocabulary words at the same time with easy and entertaining games like Fictionary or Categories.

Fictionary

For this game, you will need a standard dictionary, and at least three other people to play with. Each person takes turns being the leader. The first leader finds an unusual word in the dictionary, and reads it out loud (but not the definition). Each person then writes down what they think the definition of the word is, with the leader writing down the correct definition. The leader collects all the definitions from the other players, mixes them up, and reads them out loud, making sure that no one knows who wrote which definition. All players except the leader vote on the word they think is the right one. Whoever picks the correct definition gets one point; whoever writes a definition that gets a vote gets one point for each vote; and if no one selects the correct definition, the leader gets a point. The dictionary is handed to the next person for their turn as the leader, and the game continues until one person wins a predetermined number of points.

Categories

This is a good game to develop your word-association skills, and can be played with any number of people. There are two different forms of this game. In the first version, one person calls out a category and then everyone takes a turn going around the circle naming something that belongs in that category. In general, this has to be done quickly, and if a player can’t think of a word right away, they’re eliminated from the round. For example, the first person may say “animals found in a zoo” and start the list of zebra, lion, kangaroo, etc. The winner of the round is the last person in the circle.

In the second version of Categories, it’s useful to have pencil and paper. To start, one person selects five random letters and five random categories – for example, the letters O R L T S and the categories “flowers,” “country names,” “birds,” “food,” and “emotions.” Then each player (including the selector) writes down five words in each category using the selected letters. In this example, the “country names” category might be completed with the countries Oman, Rwanda, Latvia, Trinidad, and Sweden. The person who completes the most categories wins a point, and gets to choose the next set of letters and categories.

Did you grow up playing word games with your family? What are your favorite word-based party games? Leave your suggestions in the comments.