274 Pictionary Words: Easy, Medium and Hard Lists That Can Actually Be Drawn

Good Pictionary words have one thing in common: a shape you can draw. We hand-picked 274 words that work: 99 easy, 107 medium and 68 hard. We left out abstract words like “idea” or “justice”, which are close to impossible to draw. Use the lists below, or let the Pictionary word generator pick for you, with a timer and a hidden-word mode.

Easy Pictionary words (99)

Simple objects, animals and food with one clear shape. Good for young kids and warm-up rounds.

apple, ball, balloon, banana, bed, bee, bell, bird, boat, book, bread, bridge, bus, butterfly, cake, candle, car, carrot, cat, chair, cheese, clock, cloud, cookie, cow, crown, cup, cupcake, dog, door, drum, duck, egg, eye, fish, flag, flower, fork, frog, ghost, giraffe, glasses, grape, guitar, hammer, hand, hat, heart, horse, hotdog, house, ice, igloo, key, kite, ladder, ladybug, lamp, leaf, lemon, lion, moon, mouse, mushroom, nose, orange, owl, pencil, pig, pizza, plane, pumpkin, rabbit, rain, rainbow, ring, robot, rocket, shoe, snail, snake, snowman, sock, spider, spoon, star, sun, sword, table, tent, train, tree, truck, turtle, umbrella, whale, window, worm, zebra.

Medium Pictionary words (107)

More detail, or a simple scene. Good for older kids and mixed groups.

airport, ambulance, anchor, astronaut, backpack, bandage, barn, basket, bathtub, battery, beach, bicycle, binoculars, blanket, bowling, broom, bucket, cactus, camera, campfire, canoe, castle, caterpillar, chimney, circus, compass, cowboy, crab, dinosaur, dolphin, dragon, earthquake, elephant, envelope, eraser, feather, fence, firework, flashlight, garden, hamburger, helicopter, hippo, iceberg, island, jellyfish, kangaroo, keyboard, lighthouse, lobster, magnet, mailbox, map, mermaid, microphone, mirror, motorcycle, mountain, necklace, octopus, padlock, palm, panda, parachute, parrot, penguin, piano, pillow, pirate, popcorn, present, puzzle, pyramid, raccoon, river, sandcastle, saxophone, scarecrow, scissors, seesaw, shark, skateboard, skeleton, sled, snowflake, spaceship, squirrel, stairs, stethoscope, submarine, suitcase, sunflower, swing, teapot, telescope, tiger, toaster, toothbrush, tornado, tractor, trampoline, trophy, volcano, waterfall, wheelchair, windmill, wizard.

Hard Pictionary words (68)

Still drawable, but they need a clever idea or a little story.

acrobat, avalanche, blizzard, blueprint, bonfire, boomerang, bulldozer, cathedral, chandelier, constellation, coral, cuckoo, dentist, detective, diploma, echo, eclipse, elevator, escalator, fossil, gargoyle, geyser, glacier, gladiator, gravity, hammock, harmonica, hedgehog, hourglass, hurricane, jigsaw, juggler, knight, labyrinth, lasso, marathon, meteor, mosaic, oasis, orchestra, origami, parade, passport, periscope, plumber, porcupine, quicksand, referee, rhinoceros, robbery, sculpture, shipwreck, skydiving, snorkel, stalactite, surfboard, tightrope, treasure, tsunami, unicorn, vacuum, ventriloquist, vineyard, waiter, wheelbarrow, wrestler, yacht, zipper.

How to play

1. Split into two or more teams. Each round, one player draws and their team guesses.

2. The drawer sees the word without letting anyone else see it. In our generator, turn on Hide word and tap the card to peek.

3. No letters, numbers, spoken clues or gestures. Drawing only.

4. Use a timer: 60 seconds is standard, 90 for hard words.

5. Score one point for each correct guess. Our generator keeps count with Got it and Skip.

Tips for a better game

• Match the level to the players. Mixed-age groups do well with Mixed level, so everyone gets some easy words.
• Draw the setting first. For “lighthouse”, a wavy sea line makes the tall shape obvious.
• Use arrows and dashes. An arrow pointing at part of a drawing is allowed in most house rules and saves time.
• Let skipped words come back. The generator reshuffles after every word has been played.

A short history

The game was invented by Robert Angel, who started playing it with friends in 1981. With business partners Terry Langston and Gary Everson, he published it in 1985. Tens of millions of copies had sold by 1994, when Hasbro acquired the rights.

Sources

• Word lists: hand-picked by the RandomWordMaker team.
• Pictionary, Wikipedia.