150+ Fun Pictionary Words (Easy, Medium, and Hard!) (2025)

The Best Words for Pictionary: Prompt Ideas for the Game

Pictionary is a fun, classic party game for all ages! Whether you're looking for an icebreaker game for a classroom or family reunion or just a good game for family game night, Pictionary is an excellent choice. You can have fun with family and friends while developing your drawing skills and putting them to the ultimate test.

If you've never played before, you're missing out. Fortunately, it's easy to make your own set with common household items so you can play anytime. (More on that below!) The main thing you need is a bunch of prompt ideas for the artists!

Easy, Medium, and Hard Word Ideas

There are three levels of difficulty in Pictionary: easy, medium, and hard. When writing down prompts, be sure to make an even mix of words from the various levels. To save you some time, here are a ton of words you can use in your game, sorted by difficulty! Enjoy!

Easy Pictionary Words

Medium Pictionary Words

Hard Pictionary Words

How to Make a DIY Pictionary Set

You could always go to the store and buy the official Pictionary; however, if you don't have time (or don't want to spend the money), you can always make your own game. All you need are a few basic materials. Most of these are probably lying around the house!

Number of players: 4+

What You Need

• Timer
• Paper
• Pencils
• Index cards
• Dice

Setup

• Choose five or six categories (people, places, things, animals, actions, etc.).
• Write a word on each card. The word should fit into one of the categories. You'll also want to choose a mix of easy, medium, and hard ones. (For example, you could write "cat," "salamander," and "porcupine" for the animal category.)
• Place the cards into piles (based on category), then shuffle them.
• Assign each category a number that corresponds with the die.
• Set out your materials, and you're ready to start!

How to Play

• Divide into teams of two or more, and roll a die to see who goes first. Appoint a "judge" to hand out cards and set the timer.
• The starting team rolls the die and receives a card from the category that corresponds to the number; the timer is set for 60 seconds, and the judge says, "Start!"
• The artist has 60 seconds to draw, and the rest of the team must guess what they are drawing in the allotted timeframe.
• The artist may not talk, make noises, or gesture. Also, no letters or numbers are allowed in the pictures.
• If they guess the word correctly, the team gets a point and goes again. If they are wrong, it's the next team's turn to repeat the above.
• Set a limit to determine the winner, such as "The first team to get 25 points wins!"

Ideas for Pictionary Categories

You'll generally want to play with 5–6 different categories of words, but you can always create more than that and have them ready to go! Here are some ideas for broad and specific categories that you can use to inspire your word ideas. Consider whether it'd be easy or hard to draw the word while you're coming up with ideas!

People

• Celebrities
• Athletes
• Politicians
• Historical Figures
• Careers (e.g., doctor, teacher, firefighter, chef, etc.)

Places

• Countries
• Cities
• Natural Landmarks (e.g., a waterfall, the Grand Canyon, a volcano, etc.)
• Buildings (e.g., a school, a hospital, the White House, etc.)
• U.S. States

Things

• Food and Drinks
• Clothes
• Household Objects
• Appliances (e.g., a refrigerator, a blender, a washing machine, etc.)
• Book Titles
• Movie Titles
• Phrases

Animals

• Pets
• Farm Animals
• Jungle Animals
• Zoo Animals
• Marine Animals
• Mythical Creatures

Actions

• Movements
• Gestures
• Playing Sports
• Daily Life Tasks (e.g., brushing your teeth, getting dressed, making breakfast, etc.)

Gameplay Variations

Obviously, when making your own Pictionary game, you can play however you want! Here are some common variations to try next game night:

• Alternate the team that draws next (regardless of whether or not the previous drawing was guessed correctly).
• Give opposing teams a chance to guess simultaneously (or after the time runs out) to earn points.
• Have the teams go head-to-head each round. Both artists draw the same word, and the team who guesses first earns the points.
• Assign different point values for easy, medium, and hard words.
• Forgo the dice and just draw cards.

Enjoy These Pictionary Ideas at Your Next Game Night!

This is such a fun game to play, and with the unlimited possibilities for words to draw, you have unlimited options for gameplay! Grab some chips and dip, gather your friends or family, and be prepared to have a blast. If you're not a great artist, that's okay; there's always Charades and Telephone to play instead!

Arasu on August 20, 2020:

this page is awesome

Mehal Bagaria on July 14, 2020:

It's too amazing

delainey on May 22, 2020:

your index cards worked great. Me and my family loved it!

Mjjones on May 17, 2020:

Lots of los

matthew ungvarsky on January 30, 2020:

i love all

I dunno on November 07, 2019:

This is the most coolest website for Pictionary ever

Mystiqued on February 01, 2019:

Pilgram is a new age word meaning a nerd or goofy person

only on September 14, 2018:

why do you need to say pilgrim

John on December 21, 2017:

How do you spell pilgrim?

LUl on May 23, 2017:

You misspelled Pilgrim but ok