Animals for Charades: 100 Words From Easy to Hard

Looking for animals to act out? Here are 100 animal words for charades in three levels: 40 easy, 40 normal and 20 hard. Pick the level that fits your group, shuffle the words and start miming.

100 animal words for charades

Use the easy level for kids and warm-up rounds, then move to normal and hard once everyone has stopped feeling shy about crawling around the living room.

Easy (40)

Cat
Dog
Horse
Cow
Pig
Duck
Chicken
Sheep
Goat
Rabbit
Frog
Fish
Elephant
Lion
Tiger
Bear
Monkey
Giraffe
Zebra
Kangaroo
Penguin
Snake
Turtle
Dolphin
Shark
Owl
Eagle
Parrot
Mouse
Bat
Bee
Butterfly
Ant
Crab
Octopus
Wolf
Fox
Deer
Squirrel
Hedgehog

Normal (40)

Hyena
Salmon
Condor
Weasel
Ferret
Sloth
Baboon
Jackal
Warthog
Gazelle
Impala
Meerkat
Caribou
Puma
Lynx
Ocelot
Cheetah
Stingray
Puffer fish
Swordfish
Barracuda
Angelfish
Coyote
Emu
Cassowary
Emperor penguin
Albatross
Raven
Magpie
Heron
Kingfisher
Arctic fox
Snow leopard
Mountain goat
Ibex
Elk
Reindeer
Wild boar
Chinchilla
Beaver

Hard (20)

Hard does not mean obscure: these words are simply harder to act out without speaking.

Mongoose
Opossum
Termite
Leech
Wallaby
Chameleon
Dingo
Platypus
Quail
Stoat
Newt
Toad
Tarantula
Shrew
Weevil
Tick
Wombat
Mink
Caterpillar
Hornet

These ideas are starters. Download Showem free for more words, teams and timers, and same-phone play on one device - from the App Store or Google Play.

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Screens from the latest app - from setup to the word on the card.

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How to act out an animal without making a sound

Charades is silent, so animal noises are out. Start with size: hands low for a mouse, stretched high for a giraffe. Then show how it moves, with hops for a rabbit or a frog, a slow crawl for a turtle, flapping arms for a parrot or an owl. Finish with one signature detail, such as a trunk, a pouch or a pair of claws. If the guessers are stuck, hold up your fingers for the number of syllables.

Why the hard level is hard

Hard animals are not rare, they are just almost impossible to mime. A weevil, a newt, a mongoose or a shrew have no famous movement, so the guessers cannot tell them from other small animals. The trick is to show where the animal lives and what it does: a chameleon changes color and rolls its eyes, a wombat waddles and digs, a platypus swims with a duck bill. Let the group call out categories first, then narrow it down.

Play these animals in the Showem app

The Showem app holds 200 animal words in three difficulty levels, and this page shows 100 of them. Showem turns the words into timed team rounds on a single phone, so nobody has to write slips of paper or keep score by hand. It is free to download on iOS and Android, and the same word bank also covers food, jobs, movies and eight more categories.