The Party Toolkit

Scattergories Lists

12 lists of 12 categories, 144 in all, built so every letter has a way in.

Here are twelve Scattergories lists of twelve categories each, 144 Scattergories categories in total, ready to play tonight. Pick a list, roll or draw a letter, start a three-minute timer, and every player writes one answer per category starting with that letter. When time is up, read the answers aloud. Any answer that somebody else also wrote scores nothing; every valid answer nobody else thought of scores a point. Three rounds make a game, and the highest total wins.

The lists run from a warm-up for first-timers, through a kids list, a food list and a pop culture list, to a hard list for people who play every week. There is a Halloween list for October and a grown-ups list for the end of a party. Each one is balanced the same way, which is the part most printable lists skip, and it is explained just below.

The duplicate trap: what makes a Scattergories list good

Scattergories has one rule that changes everything about choosing categories: a matching answer scores zero. That means a good category is not simply one with lots of answers. It is one where the obvious answer is not the only answer. Give a table "Fruits" and the letter B, and half the players write banana and cancel each other out, while the one person who wrote blackberry takes the point. The best categories have a crowded obvious answer and a long tail of decent alternatives, so the round rewards people who think one step past their first idea.

The other way a category fails is the blank. "Islands" with the letter K leaves most tables with nothing, and a list with four categories like that turns a three-minute round into ninety seconds of staring. So every list here mixes three kinds of category. Roughly five are wide, with answers for nearly every letter, so nobody hands in an empty sheet. Four sit in the middle and produce the duplicate fights. Two or three are narrow, and those are where a game is won, because only one or two players at the table will find anything at all.

If you are writing your own lists, test each category on three awkward letters, say J, K and O, before you put it in. If you can find a fair answer for two of the three in under ten seconds, it is playable. If you cannot find one, it belongs on a hard list or nowhere.

List 1: the warm-up

Wide categories with an answer for almost every letter. Use it for the first round or for anyone who has never played.

  1. A boy's name
  2. A girl's name
  3. Animals
  4. Things in a kitchen
  5. Countries
  6. Foods you eat with your hands
  7. Things that are cold
  8. Jobs
  9. Things at a birthday party
  10. Sports
  11. TV shows
  12. Words ending in -ing

List 2: around the house

Everyday categories with a couple of narrow ones mixed in, so the scores start to separate.

  1. Fruits and vegetables
  2. Cities
  3. Things in a car
  4. Famous musicians
  5. Things you shout
  6. Breakfast foods
  7. Board games
  8. Things with a tail
  9. School subjects
  10. Things you plug in
  11. Cartoon characters
  12. Reasons to be late

List 3: the all-rounder

A balanced list that works for nearly any group of teenagers or adults. If you only play one list tonight, play this one.

  1. Things in the ocean
  2. Clothing
  3. Movie titles
  4. Things that are soft
  5. Desserts
  6. Things in a hospital
  7. Superheroes
  8. Things you can throw
  9. Hobbies
  10. Weather words
  11. Brands
  12. Things in a toolbox

List 4: a little harder

Still friendly, but three or four of these will leave a blank on a bad letter. Good for the second hour.

  1. Things that fly
  2. Drinks
  3. Famous people from history
  4. Things at the beach
  5. Musical instruments
  6. Things in a bathroom
  7. Book titles
  8. Pizza toppings
  9. Insects
  10. Things that are round
  11. Things you save
  12. Song titles

List 5: kids (ages 7 and up)

Every category here has answers a seven-year-old knows. Give younger players four minutes instead of three.

  1. Toys
  2. Things in a classroom
  3. Zoo animals
  4. Colors
  5. Things in a lunchbox
  6. Things at a playground
  7. Storybook characters
  8. Things that are sticky
  9. Things in a backyard
  10. Things that make noise
  11. Snacks
  12. Farm animals

List 6: food night

For a dinner party table or a group that cooks. The narrow ones, cheeses and spices, decide the round.

  1. Things on a menu
  2. Cheeses
  3. Things you bake
  4. Kitchen appliances
  5. Herbs and spices
  6. Things at a picnic
  7. Sandwich fillings
  8. Fast food chains
  9. Things you dip
  10. Crunchy foods
  11. Cocktails and mocktails
  12. Things in a fridge

List 7: pop culture

Rewards whoever watches the most television. Mix it with list 1 or 5 if the room is split on that.

  1. Reality TV shows
  2. Video games
  3. Famous duos
  4. Movie villains
  5. Things on a red carpet
  6. Celebrities known by one name
  7. Things people post online
  8. TV characters
  9. Bands
  10. Famous athletes
  11. Things in a music video
  12. Fictional places

List 8: the hard list

Narrow categories where most letters have only two or three real answers. Save it for a group that wants a fight.

  1. Things older than 100 years
  2. Words with double letters
  3. Rivers
  4. Capital cities
  5. Things you cannot touch
  6. Famous scientists
  7. Emotions
  8. Units of measurement
  9. Things that are transparent
  10. Mythical creatures
  11. Things in space
  12. Words that sound fancy

List 9: Halloween

A seasonal list for October parties. Candy and costumes are easy; the haunted house and the witch's kitchen are where people get creative.

  1. Halloween costumes
  2. Things in a haunted house
  3. Scary movies
  4. Candy
  5. Things that are orange
  6. Things in a graveyard
  7. Monsters
  8. Things in a witch's kitchen
  9. Autumn activities
  10. Things that glow
  11. Sounds that scare you
  12. Things you decorate

List 10: grown-ups only

Cheeky rather than explicit, built for a table of adults who know each other. The answers get read aloud, which is the point.

  1. Excuses for leaving a party early
  2. Things you say on a first date
  3. Things you would hide from your parents
  4. Things in a purse
  5. Things at a wedding
  6. Bad gift ideas
  7. Things you do on a lazy Sunday
  8. Things that cost too much
  9. Pet peeves
  10. Things in a junk drawer
  11. Famous couples
  12. Things you should not say to your boss

List 11: travel

For a group that has been places, or a long car ride where the scorekeeper is in the passenger seat.

  1. Things in a suitcase
  2. Tourist attractions
  3. Things at an airport
  4. Islands
  5. Languages
  6. Things on a road trip
  7. National dishes
  8. Things you see from a train
  9. Things in a hotel room
  10. Souvenirs
  11. Ways to travel
  12. Things on a map

List 12: wordplay

Categories about words and shapes rather than topics, which flattens the advantage of whoever knows the most trivia.

  1. Compound words
  2. Words with three syllables
  3. Things that come in pairs
  4. Things with buttons
  5. Things that are fast
  6. Things that are loud
  7. Words that describe a person
  8. Things you open
  9. Things that bounce
  10. Things you do at night
  11. Action words
  12. Nicknames

How to play Scattergories, start to finish

The boxed game is for two to six players, but the paper version stretches to a dozen without trouble. Everyone needs a sheet with twelve numbered lines and something to write with. Agree which list you are playing, then roll the letter die or draw a letter from a cup. Start the timer. Each player works down the twelve categories writing one answer per line that starts with the letter. Any number of words is fine as long as the first one starts with the right letter, and "the" or "a" at the front does not count as the first word.

When the timer runs out, pens down. Go around the table one category at a time: the first player reads their answer for category one, everyone who wrote the same thing says so, and all of them cross it out. Valid answers nobody matched get a point. Then the next category. Reading by category rather than by player is faster and it keeps everyone listening, which matters because the reveal is the funniest part of the game.

A game is three rounds on the same list with three different letters. Move to a new list for the next game, because by the third round the table has heard every category three times and the answers start to repeat on purpose.

Challenges and the arguments worth settling first

Any player can challenge an answer that does not fit the category. The table votes, and if the vote is tied the challenged player's own vote is thrown out. Two disputes come up in nearly every game, so settle them before round one. First, how generous to be: is a kelp salad a thing in a kitchen? Most groups allow anything you can defend in one sentence, and that broad reading is part of the fun. Second, near-duplicates: if one player wrote "dog" and another wrote "big dog", is that a match? The usual answer is yes, because adding a word to someone else's answer is not a different answer.

Proper nouns get one more rule worth knowing. If a name contains the letter as an initial or a later word, it can still count: with the letter S, "Harry S. Truman" works for a presidents category. And in a popular scoring variation, alliteration pays: an answer where two words start with the letter scores two points, three words scores three. It rewards creativity and it settles a lot of close games.

Playing without the box

You do not need the game to play. Write twenty letters on scraps of paper, A to W without Q, U and V, and pull one out of a mug each round. A phone timer set to three minutes does the rest. Print this page or pull it up on a phone in the middle of the table, and have everyone number a sheet from one to twelve. The only thing you lose is the rattle of the die.

For a big group, play in pairs. Two people share a sheet and whisper, which is half the fun, and it halves the reading-aloud time at the end of each round. For children, give four minutes, read the categories out loud before the timer starts, and score two points for an answer that starts with the letter and one point for a sensible answer that does not, which is how the junior edition handles it.

Where Scattergories fits in a party night

Scattergories is a seated, quiet-then-loud game: three minutes of scribbling followed by five minutes of people defending ridiculous answers. That makes it a good second game of the night, after something social has broken the ice and before anyone is ready to perform. Our party games night checklist has the full running order. If your group likes the category idea but wants it faster and louder, the Tapple categories page has 98 categories sorted for the ten-second version, where letters disappear as you use them.

When people are ready to get off the couch, the natural next step is a team game where the answers come back: the Fishbowl game plays three rounds with the same slips, describing, then one word, then acting. Or go straight to charades word lists sorted easy to hard. And for a table of adults late in the evening, the party games for adults guide covers which games work once everyone has had a drink or two.

FAQ

How many categories are on a Scattergories list?

Twelve. Every player answers the same twelve categories with the same letter inside the time limit, then the table compares answers. That is why every list on this page has exactly twelve, and why the twelve lists add up to 144 categories.

How long is a round of Scattergories?

The timer in the box runs for up to three minutes, and three minutes is the right default for adults. Give children or first-time players four minutes, and drop to two minutes for a group that has played a lot and finishes early.

Which letters should you leave out?

The letter die in most editions has twenty faces and leaves out the letters that make rounds unplayable, typically Q, U, V, X, Y and Z. If you play without the die, write the other twenty letters on slips and draw one each round, putting it back afterwards.

How do you score Scattergories?

One point for every valid answer nobody else at the table wrote. Matching answers score zero for everyone who wrote them. In a common variation, a proper noun scores an extra point for each extra word that starts with the letter, so a two-word alliterative answer is worth two.

Can you use these lists for Tapple or other category games?

The easy and medium lists work well for Tapple because those categories have answers across many letters. The hard list and the wordplay list are better kept for Scattergories, where everyone shares one letter and a narrow category is a fair fight rather than a dead end.

More party tools

Never Have I Ever

Hundreds of Never Have I Ever questions by category, funny, couples, teens and more.

D&D Name Generator

Fantasy character names by race, elf, dwarf, orc, tiefling and beyond.

Would You Rather

Would You Rather questions from funny to extreme, ready for your next party.

Team Name Generator

Clever team names by sport and theme, trivia, softball, fantasy football and office.

Rapper Name Generator

Stage names by style, east coast, west coast, trap and old school.

Charades

Printable charades word lists by category and difficulty for all ages.