Taboo Word Game: Rules, Forbidden Words and Ideas

Taboo is a guessing game where one player must get their team to say a target word without using that word or a short list of closely related "taboo" words. It is easy to run at home with nothing but paper, and a random word generator removes the hardest part of making cards: coming up with fresh target words.

The basic rules

Split into two teams. A clue-giver draws a card showing a target word and four or five forbidden words. They have sixty seconds to get teammates to say the target, with no gestures, no sound effects, no rhymes, no "sounds like" and none of the forbidden words, including their plurals and other forms. A guess that matches scores a point. A forbidden word spoken by the clue-giver is a penalty, called by a member of the other team who holds the card. Rotate the clue-giver each turn and play to a fixed number of rounds.

How to choose forbidden words

The forbidden list should contain the first things anyone would say. For "kitchen" that is cook, food, fridge and house. The point is to push the clue-giver past the obvious, so write the list by asking yourself which five words you would use if you had ten seconds. If the list is too short the game is trivial; if it blocks every reasonable route, no one can score. Four forbidden words is a good default, and two for children.

Making cards with random words

Generate a batch of twenty words at once and discard anything that is too obscure or has no natural clues. Concrete nouns work best, so start from the random nouns or the objects and food categories. Verbs are harder to clue but make a good second tier. Aim for a mix: roughly half easy, a third medium, and a few hard words to keep the last round tense.

Variants

• One-word clue
• Charades-only round
• Opposites only
• Three words maximum
• Sentence with a blank

Many groups play three rounds with the same deck: first with free talking, then with a single word allowed, then with silent acting. Because everyone has now seen every card, the later rounds go quickly and rely on memory. For the acting round, the charades guide lists words that are easy to mime.