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Charades tips

10 charades words the AI guesses instantly (and 5 that stump it)

By Team Kazoo · July 10, 2026 · 3 min read

Kazoo doesn't see a photo of you — it reads a short burst of video frames as motion: the path, speed, and scale of what your body is doing. That one fact explains almost everything about which charades words an AI crushes and which ones leave it babbling. After watching a lot of rounds, here's the pattern.

The 10 it guesses in seconds

1. Swimming. Big, rhythmic, repeated arm arcs. Motion doesn't get more legible than freestyle strokes.
2. T-Rex. Tiny arms pinned to your chest plus stompy lunges. Unmistakable silhouette-in-motion.
3. Slam dunk. Crouch, explode upward, one-arm hammer. The full arc reads perfectly across frames.
4. Air guitar. One hand fretting, one hand strumming, head optional but encouraged.
5. Boxing. Guard up, jab-jab-cross. Fast repeated straight-line motion is candy for a vision model.
6. Driving. Two hands on an invisible wheel, steering side to side. Instant.
7. Sleeping. Hands pressed under a tilted head, eyes closed. A classic for a reason.
8. Juggling. Alternating hand tosses in a loop. The circular path is the whole answer.
9. Archery. One arm extended, the other drawing back to your cheek, release. Clean and directional.
10. Monkey. Underarm scratching plus a little bounce. Silly, huge, and totally readable.

The 5 that stump it

1. Hiccup. The motion is a two-inch chest twitch. From across the room, that's basically standing still.
2. Shadow. How do you act out a thing that only exists next to another thing? Players usually end up pointing at the floor, which reads as… floor.
3. Tuesday. Abstract time words are brutal. There is no gesture for Tuesday. There will never be a gesture for Tuesday.
4. Wi-Fi. People draw little arcs in the air. The AI sees "rainbow," "conductor," or "sprinkler" — all honestly fair.
5. Democracy. The undisputed final boss. Voting mimes, handshakes, invisible ballot boxes — good luck.

The stumpers share one trait: the word lives in your head, not your body. When the concept has no physical footprint, you're not playing charades anymore — you're playing telepathy.

Three tips to get guessed faster

• Go bigger than feels reasonable. Charades is exaggeration. A polite little gesture reads as noise; a huge one reads as intent.
• Loop it. Do the motion at least three times in a row. One-and-done gestures often fall between frames.
• Act the famous version. Don't act "a lion" — act a lion mid-roar with claws out. The most iconic version of a thing is the most guessable version.