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

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Learn the rules of the classic game of whispered messages

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

Last Updated: October 24, 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

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.

Telephone Game Rules

Gather at least 3 players and sit them in a line. Then, think of a secret word or phrase. Make it unusual and unique, like “hammer time.”
Whisper the word or phrase to the first person in the line, so that only they can hear. They whisper it to the next person. Repeat this down the line.
After the last person has heard the word or phrase, they say it loudly for the group to hear. Reveal the original word to compare.

Section 1 of 3:

Playing the Telephone Game

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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, tell everyone to sit 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.^{[1]
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- A circle works best for bigger groups of 10+ people, while a line works best for smaller groups. Choose whichever you want, though!
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Choose a secret phrase and whisper it to the person next to you. Choose a person to start the game, either the youngest or the oldest. This person will think of a secret word or phrase and whisper it to the person next to them. It works best if the word or phrase is fun, unique, or uncommon.
- For example, you might choose a word 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 you’re playing with young people, keep it simple. If you’re playing with an older crowd, feel free to make the word or phrase more complicated.
- 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.
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Continue whispering the word until everyone has heard it. Players continue passing the word or phrase down the line, listening to the word and repeating 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.^{[2]
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- Each player can only whisper the word or phrase once. No repeating it! And make sure only the person next to you can hear.
- Do your best to repeat what you heard, but remember that part of the fun is seeing how the word changes down the line!
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Reveal the original word once everyone has been whispered to. 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 to see how much it changed.^{[3]
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- Every player can pitch in and say what they heard to try to find out where the group changed it.

Section 2 of 3:

Playing Variations to the Telephone Game

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Team Telephone Playing telephone in teams adds a fun, competitive edge to the game. Teams will each play the game in the same manner as a normal game, with one person starting the game off and the players whispering it down the line. However, choose one player to whisper the same word to both teams. Whichever team is closest to the original word or phrase at the end wins.^{[4]
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- 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.
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Rumor Telephone In this version, players are required to make changes. Even if you hear the phrase correctly, you must add one difference. This will result in huge changes to the original phrase the game started with. For example:
- If you started out with "Mary had two white cats," the next person might say: "Mary had two black cats." The third person might say: "Mary had two black dogs."
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Paper Telephone This is the same as normal Telephone, except each player is given a stack of small papers, like index cards, and something to write with. Each player gets as many slips as there are people playing the game. Use your pencil to number each slip of paper. Each player writes a word or phrase on their top sheet and passes their entire stack to the next player, who puts the sheet with the word or phrase on it on the bottom of the stack, then uses the new blank top sheet to draw the word or phrase. Then:^{[5]
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- Everyone passes their stack, with the image on top, to the next player, who puts that slip on the bottom and writes what they think the drawing is on the new top, blank sheet.
- Players continue passing their stacks, alternating drawing and writing, until every slip of paper in the stacks are used and each player is left with their original stack.
- Then, players share the stacks to see how much the message has changed.
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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.

Section 3 of 3:

Words & Phrases to Use in Telephone

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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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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.

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So isn't this quite similar to Chinese whispers?

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

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