How to Play the Game of Telephone (a.k.a. Rumors Game)

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Games expert Jonathan Wells explains the rules of the classic game of whispered messages

Co-authored by Luke Smith, MFA Reviewed by Ashton Wu

Last Updated: December 12, 2025 Fact Checked

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• Playing the Telephone Game
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• Variations
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• Words & Phrases to Use
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• Video
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• Q&A

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Telephone is a classic icebreaker and party game. It's easy to set up and a lot of fun to play. You and your friends will pick a word or phrase, pass it on by whispering it to someone next to you, and have fun seeing how much it changed during the game. All you will need to play is a couple of friends, a word or phrase, and a quiet whisper, and we’ll show you the rest, including fun variations and example phrases to get you started, plus tips from games expert Jonathan Wells.

Telephone Game Rules

Games expert Jonathan Wells explains the basics of the Telephone Game:

• Have players stand in a line or circle.
• The first player whispers a fun, short phrase one time—no repeating.
• Each player whispers the message to the next person around the circle or down the line.
• Reveal the original message and enjoy how it changed along the way.

Steps

Section 1 of 3:

Playing the Telephone Game

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1. 
   1
   Gather 3+ people and sit in a line or a circle. Telephone needs at least 3 players, but it works best with at least 5. You can never have too many, though! Once you’ve gathered all the players, Wells recommends telling everyone to sit or stand in a circle or a line. Each person should be close enough to the person next to them that they can lean over and whisper in their ear.

   • “Circles work best for big groups [while] lines work great for controlled play,” says Wells.

   Meet the wikiHow Expert

   Jonathan Wells is a games expert and the founder of Dig The Games, an online platform that aims to share the joys of playing games and friendly competition with a wider audience.
2. 
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   Choose a secret phrase and whisper it to the person next to you. Wells says to choose the first player, then have them think of a fun, short phrase. He says you can also give them a phrase if that’s easier. Have them whisper the phrase to the person next to them.

   • Wells adds that each player should only whisper the word once—”no repeating, no re-whispering.”
   • “Keep phrases short, silly, and filled with image-heavy words,” advises Wells. He shares this example: “The purple hippo packed popcorn for the picnic.”
   • Other examples might be words like “ostrich” or “paperboy.” Or, you might choose a short phrase like “I want some French toast,” or, “Do you want a new doggy?”
   • If this is for school, consider using one of the vocabulary words that you are studying. You can also use a term from a science class.
   • If you’re playing with an older crowd, you might make the word or phrase more complicated.
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3. 
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   Continue whispering the word until everyone has heard it. “The message continues whisper-to-whisper around the circle or down the line,” says Wells. Each person should repeat what they think they heard to the person next to them. This is done until the last person in the line or circle is told the word.

   • Do your best to repeat what you heard, but remember that part of the fun is seeing how the word changes down the line!
4. 
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   Reveal the original word once everyone has been whispered to. Wells says that once the last person hears the word or phrase, they say what they heard out loud to the group so everyone can hear. Then, the first person reveals the original word or phrase. Wells adds that part of the fun is seeing “how bizarrely it changed along the way.”

   • Every player can pitch in and say what they heard to try to find out where the group changed it.
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Section 2 of 3:

Playing Variations to the Telephone Game

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1. 
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   Team Telephone / Two-Lane Telephone Playing telephone in teams adds a fun, competitive edge to the game. Wells says to divide the group into two lines, then give the same starting phrase to both. Whichever line finishes closest to the original phrase wins. “The competitive twist keeps everyone laser-focused,” Wells says.

   • To score, count how many of the original letters are in the final word, or how many original words are in the final phrase. The team with more wins.
   • For example, you may start with the word "benevolence". One team ends the game thinking that the word was "beneficent", while the other team got "detriment". In this case, the team that said "beneficent" would be closer to the original word and win the round.
2. 2
   Telephone Charades Wells shares this fun alternative to regular Telephone: “Instead of whispering a phrase, the first person acts it out silently for the next player. The next player acts out what THEY think they saw, [and it] repeats down the line.”

   • This version often “ends in a glorious mess of human interpretive dance,” adds Wells.
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   Draw & Pass / Telephone Pictionary Wells says that this is similar to the game Telestrations. Have players alternate between drawing and describing. Player 1 writes a phrase on a piece of paper and passes it to Player 2. Player 2 takes a new piece of paper and draws that phrase. Player 3 writes a phrase describing the drawing. Player 4 draws that description, and so on.

   • To make the game run smoothly, have each player pass a stack of paper to the next person. When the player looks at the drawing or phrase on top, they should move that paper to the bottom of the stack, then draw or write their description on a blank sheet on top of the stack.
   • “This ends in a museum-worthy collection of ‘abstract’ art,” says Wells.
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   Back-to-Back Drawing To play this game, Wells says to have two players sit back-to-back. “Player 1 gets a simple image [and] Player 2 has blank paper,” he says. “Player 1 describes the picture without naming objects, [and] Player 2 tries to draw it.”

   • This game turns out “hilarious results every time,” says Wells.
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   Rumor Telephone / Reverse Telephone In Reverse Telephone, Wells says that the goal is to “mess the message up on purpose… but only by changing one thing each turn.” Even if you hear the phrase correctly, you must add one difference.

   • “The goal is to make the phrase totally different by the time it finishes, but the trick is keeping the mutation subtle,” says Wells. He shares this example: “Red truck” becomes “red train,” then “fast train,” then “fast plane,” then “flying panda.”
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   Mystery Phrase Challenge “Before you start, put several phrases in a bowl,” says Wells. Have the first player draw one out and then begin the game. “If the final phrase is even close, the team wins,” he adds.

   • Wells says that this version is great when you want a team-based goal instead of chaos.
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   Difficult Telephone If you are finding that your team is able to keep the word or phrase close to the original, make the game harder by picking new words or phrases that are more difficult to hear correctly. Keep some of these tips in mind when trying to make the game of telephone a bit more difficult:

   • Pick longer words or phrases. The more you say, the harder it will be to pass on to the next person. You might try using "Squirreled" or "Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?".
   • Pick words that aren't often used. For example, "magnanimous" isn't said often and is easy to mishear.
   • Use random words that don't have context. For example using “tower, nose, zircon” would make it much more difficult to guess what was said without the context that normal phrases would have.
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Section 3 of 3:

Words & Phrases to Use in Telephone

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1. Try some of these words and phrases to get the game started. The game is most fun when you’re making your own phrases, but it can be useful to use an example word to start out with. Try a word or phrase like:

   • Banana
   • Trickster
   • Flawless
   • Finagle
   • Ice water
   • Perennial
   • Coconut crab
   • Sushi savior
   • Knick-knack paddywhack
   • Fastest fish in the ocean
   • Hello? Is this thing on?
   • Can Calvin come out to play?
   • Many moons means merriment.
   • Poor paupers play Parcheesi.
   • Do you want to see my nice new dog?

Community Q&A

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• Question

  What if we went down the line and the word never changed?

  

  Community Answer

  Just start the game over again. If this keeps persisting, mix up the order of the players. Also, make the word or phrase more difficult.

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  Thank you for your feedback.
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• Question

  How do people cheat in telephone?

  

  Community Answer

  They can change the word on purpose or they can try to hear what the first person whispers.

  Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
  Thank you for your feedback.
  If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow

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• Question

  So isn't this quite similar to Chinese whispers?

  

  Community Answer

  Yes, they are the same game given different names. I believe that Chinese whispers is Commonwealth English, while the Telephone Game is American English.

  Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
  Thank you for your feedback.
  If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow

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