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This story is part of our new Puzzles & Games section, which offers daily crosswords, sudoku and a special weekly quiz. Sign up to start playing, and follow @iepuzzles for more game ideas!
Planning a game night is no easy feat. Making your friends show up on time is the first challenge. The second? Brainstorming what to play, as quips and complaints pour in.
To save you precious time, we’ve compiled a list of six fun word games that you can play with friends online. No downloads are needed—simply type these games’ addresses into your browser, and start playing:
How to play: In 60 seconds, make as many words as possible using nine letters shown on a grid. The longer the words, the more points you get:
No. of players: Min. 2-3 to be competitive, but you can also play solo.
Play here: http://letterboxgame.com
How to play: Codenames is a cult party game that tests your ability to link diverse concepts. To play, operatives from two teams (red and blue) must compete to guess the secret cards assigned to them on a board. But there’s a catch: only the spymaster (leader) of each team knows which cards are red, and which cards are blue—everyone else is guessing blind. To help their operatives pick the right card, each spymaster must speak in code, and write down one word that acts as a clue to link their team’s cards. The team that correctly finds all of their cards first, wins:
No. of players: Min. 4, to allow at least one spymaster and one operative per team. Codenames is best played via voice chat, for easy coordination.
Play here: https://codenames.game
How to play: Predict the top 10 most popular online searches on a given topic. You’ll get a partial search prompt to start with, and must make educated guesses on how Google would auto-complete that search query. The format is based on the hit US show Family Feud:
No. of players: Min. 2 to solve as a team, but you can also play solo. Use a voice chat to make the guesses together!
Play here: https://googlefeud.online
How to play: Like the name, it’s Wordle in reverse. In Wordle, you use the placement of green, yellow and grey tiles to guess a word within six tries. In Eldrow, you are given one solved word as the answer, and must find the previous word that led to it. A set of five words are released daily, and it can be challenging for even the best Wordle players to get them all right:
No. of players: Eldrow doesn’t have a live multiplayer option, but you can compete with 3-4 other players via voice chat to see who finishes first. You can also play solo.
Play here: https://eldrow.io
How to play: If you passed out of school in the last 10 years, you might know the game ‘Name Place Animal Thing’. Well, Scattergories is the more intense version. First, players must join a lobby where an admin can pick multiple categories out of 30 free options (e.g. ‘bad habits’, ‘movies’, ‘memes’). Once the game starts, everyone gets the same letter (e.g. ‘C’), which must be used to name one thing in each category. When the clock stops, everyone weighs in on whether your answers were valid, or too creative:
No. of players: Min. 2 to be competitive, but you can also add bots to play with. The answer ‘approval’ process at the end is best done via voice chat.
Play here: https://scattergoriesonline.net
How to play: The game selects a secret (but well-known) phrase around a common topic. Once you press ‘Play Now’, the letters making up the phrase will slowly appear on a tiled board. The goal is to quickly guess the phrase before all the tiles are revealed:
No. of players: Min. 2 to be competitive, but you could also play solo or as teams. There is no live multiplayer setup, so you can compete via voice chat.
Play here: https://www.wheeloffortune.com/play/toss-up-challenge
That’s our list so far for entertaining word games that adults would enjoy playing. Do you know any other crowd-pleasers that should make this list?