Mad Libs Game

Mad libs is one of the most popular word games. It fun, entertaining, and educational – all at the same time. It is played at parties and as pastimes by people of all ages.

The game was conceived by Leonard Stern and Roger Price in 1953. They had trouble coming to a common name which postponed their release for 5 years. Once they decided on the name ‘Mad Libs‘ in 1958, they published a series of books. Over 110 million copies of the series have been sold. 

The game is simple. Players must choose nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs to fill in the blanks of a story. They are not aware of the context of the story when they are filling in the blanks.

Over the years, there have been many variations of mad libs that have come up – all of them are fun and exciting!

How do you play Mad Libs?

There are many ways how Mad Libs can be played. Below are the 5 main ways to play the Mad Libs game.

1) Prompted Sentences

Before the game starts, all players submit lists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Each player submits 10-15 words. Their words are written on notecards. The notecard for each type of word has a different color. Each player picks up a notecard of each type of word.

They must make a coherent and complete sentence with the words they have chosen. Players get a point for each word used correctly. If they succeed in making a sentence, they get 4 points.

If they manage to include words from previous players’ words, they get extra points. The player to reach fifty points first wins.

2) Replace the Highlighted

Choose a book containing a short story, poem, or pick an excerpt from an essay or a novel. Highlight some nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Without showing the players the highlighted words or letting them know the context of the excerpt, ask players to give words from the categories. On a chalkboard, note down the words.

Replace the highlighted words with the words suggested by the players and read out the text chosen. Many times, the resulting excerpt is funny and provides a good laugh.

3) Fill in the blanks

Choose a popular text of any format. Type out the excerpt with blank spaces that must be filled with verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.

Make a few different Mad Lib templates of this kind. Make players suggest words of each category without giving them the context of the excerpt. The excerpt chosen will be re-written in a funny and quirky manner.

4) Pre-Made Books, Excerpts

Another version of the game can be played by picking out books that Stern and Price have published.

5) Online Website & Apps

There are mad Libs games online and Mad Libs apps available that have custom-made mad libs templates. They are categories of templates that the websites provide like birthday mad libs, mad libs for teens and adults, etc.

Once the category is chosen, players are asked to suggest words of a particular category. The words are put in the template. The final result is read out to the group.

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Why Play Mad Libs?

‘Mad Libs’ game is a fun and educational activity to pass the time. It also serves as a game to light up a party with laughs and smiles.

Apart from this, mad libs also help hone many skills. The game is educational. It urges one to introspect and recollect uncommon words and basic grammar that they have learned.

Since the game requires one to suggest many words, it also helps to build vocabulary and personal word banks. The game is a social game that promotes social interaction and healthy communication.

As members suggest words, they begin to think creatively to find words that could possible make sense together. The final result also prods at players’ brains to form images that are bizarre at times, thereby promoting their imagination and creativity.

Mad Libs game Benefits

1. Mad Libs is fun
2. Mad Libs is educational
3. Mad Libs increase our vocabulary
4. Mad Libs foster creativity & imagination
5. Mad Libs improves grammar (teaches nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverb)
6. Mad Libs improves wordplay
7. Mad Libs is engaging

Overall, the game is fun and also beneficial to players.

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Mad Libs Examples & Word Lists

This section includes lists of words that can help players suggest words during the game. The words suggested by players depending on the age group and the overarching theme of the game. This list of words can be used in a wide range of settings

Nouns

Names of places, people, and things are known as nouns.

Absentee	femur	ring
Abyss	Ferry	rogue
Accessory	Fish	Rose
accomplice	Fifth	route
Addict	finger	royalty
Airplane	Foam	rubber
Ale	Flask	Rust
algae	Flock	salad
athlete	frame	samba
alloy	furniture	saxophone
apple	gangster	scale
arithmetic	Geese	seashore
Assistant	Ghost	self
Badge	Girl	sidewalk
Basket	giraffe	sleet
basketball	glacier	smoke
Battle	governor	bathtub
Beast	Glass	nose
Beetle	Hair	sidewalk
Beggar	heaven	son (boy)
Biologist	Hex	sophomore
Blacklist	highway	spade
Bladder	Hole	specialist
Bone	Honey	spider
Boxer	Hope	square
Brain	human	stage
Bubble	Icicle	station
Bucket	impostor	threat
Butcher	income	throat
Cactus	Island	throne
Cannon	Jeans	title
cattle (cow)	Judge	toothbrush
Celery	Lamp	tremor
Cellar	lettuce	triangle
Cereal	Lever	trigger
Chair	lightning	tuft
Cheese	Linen	tune
Circus	Lock	turkey
Clang	luxury	turf
Cloth	marble	tusk
Coach	month	twig
Coast	north (south, east, west)	typewriter
companion	Nylon	ultrasound
Crate	Ocean	umbrella
Cream	Patch	undergraduate
Crew	penthouse	underskirt
Curry	philosophy	underwear
Daisy	pioneer	unicorn
daughter (girl)	Plane	union
Donkey	playground	upholstery
Defect	pledge	uproar
dessert	Poet	Urn
Dog	Pod	vacation
earthquake	Poison	vacuum
entity	Preface	valet
Error	Prism	Van
Essay	Prophet	vault
Exile	Pub	vegetable
explosion	Quadrangle	vengeance
falcon	Rat	vertigo
Feast	Riddle	Zoo

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Verbs

Words that show actions are known as verbs.

achieve	inject	propose
act	instigate	pucker
add	itch	question
affect	irritate	quote
allow	jog	reach
appoint	jolt	refund
assent	juggle	rehabilitate
bake	jump	rinse
bang	justify	run
begin	kick	rush
bicker	kill	rustle
blend	knead	salvage
bombard	knit	scatter
call	knot	score
catch	lag	scrape
chase	land	scratch
change	lash	seek
climb	leak	sense
clutch	leave	shatter
command	lift	shout
curl	limp	skate
dab	liger	skim
damage	listen	slant
defeat	lock	slash
dig	lure	slide
draw	lynch	stay
Dine	magnify	swim
drop	make	talk
educate	manage	taste
end	march	treat
envelop	meditate	turn
escape	mix	untie
exist	mutter	ululate
fasten	name	undo
flog	nestle	use
fix	notice	vanish
gather	obey	visit
give	ooze	vow
grab	open	walk
grumble	owe	wave
hang	participate	wonder
harmonize	pass	work
hug	pitch	yaps
hunt	pollute	yawn
imagine	promise	yell

Adjectives

Words that describe nouns are known as adjectives.

abundant	delightful	high	nutritious	square
adorable	dirty	hollow	obedient	steep
afraid	disgust	homely	obdurate	sterile
agreeable	drab	hot	obnoxious	sticky
alive	dry	huge	odd	straight
angry	dusty	hydraulic	old-fashioned	strong
ashamed	dysfunctional	icy	opaque	substantial
beautiful	eager	iffy	orange	sultry
better	early	immense	panicky	sweet
bewildered	easy	important	petite	swift
big	elegant	inexpensive	plain	tall
bilingual	elliptical	indirect	poor	tardy
bitter	embarrassed	itchy	powerful	tart
black	empty	jealous	prickly	tasteless
blue	faint	jolly	proud	teeny
boiling	faithful	juicy	puny	teeny-tiny
boisterous	famous	juvenile	pure	temperate
brave	fantastic	kind	purple	tender
breeze	fancy	large	purring	thankful
broad	fast	late	quaint	thoughtless
broken	fat	lazy	quick	tiny
bumpy	few	light	quiet	ugliest
calm	fierce	little	rainy	ugly
careful	filthy	lively	rapid	uneven
chilly	flaky	long	red	uninterested
chubby	flat	loose	relieved	unsightly
clean	fluffy	loud	red	uptight
clear	free	lousy	repulsive	useful
clever	freezing	low	rich	vast
clumsy	fresh	lumpy	rotten	victorious
cold	full	magnificent	round	warm
colossal	gentle	mammoth	salty	weak
comparable	ghastly	manic	sandy	wet
cool	gifted	many	scary	west
creepy	gigantic	massive	scrawny	westerns
crooked	glamorous	melted	screeching	whispering
cuddly	gray	messy	shallow	white
curly	greasy	miniature	short	wide
curved	great	modern	shy	wide-eyed
damaged	green	mushy	silly	witty
damp	grumpy	mysterious	skinny	wooden
dead	handsome	narrow	slow	worried
deafening	happy	nervous	small	wrong
deep	heavy	nice	soft	yellow
defeated	helpful	noisy	sparkling	young
delicious	helpless	numerous	sparse	yummy

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Adverbs

Words that describe verbs are known as adverbs.

actually	famously	jaggedly	perfectly	smoothly
almost	far	jealously	playfully	softly
always	fast	joyfully	politely	solidly
angrily	fatally	justly	poorly	sometimes
annually	ferociously	keenly	positively	soon
anxiously	foolishly	kindly	powerfully	speedily
arrogantly	fortunately	knowingly	promptly	sternly
awkwardly	frankly	lazily	properly	strictly
badly	frantically	less	quicker	successfully
bashfully	freely	lightly	quickly	suddenly
beautifully	fully	likely	quietly	surprisingly
blindly	furiously	limply	rapidly	suspiciously
boldly	generally	lively	rarely	sweetly
bravely	generously	loosely	readily	swiftly
briefly	gently	loudly	really	sympathetically
brightly	gladly	lovingly	reassuringly	tenderly
briskly	gleefully	madly	recklessly	terribly
busily	gracefully	merrily	regularly	thankfully
calmly	gratefully	miserably	reluctantly	thoughtfully
carefully	greatly	mockingly	repeatedly	tightly
carelessly	greedily	monthly	rigidly	tomorrow
certainly	happily	more	roughly	too
cheerfully	hastily	mortally	rudely	truly
clearly	healthily	mostly	sadly	truthfully
cleverly	heavily	naturally	safely	upbeat
closely	helpfully	nearly	searchingly	upward
coolly	helplessly	neatly	sedately	urgently
courageously	highly	nervously	seemingly	vainly
cruelly	honestly	never	seldom	vastly
curiously	hopelessly	nicely	selfishly	very
daintily	hourly	noisily	separately	viciously
deeply	hungrily	normally	seriously	violently
delightfully	immediately	not	shakily	warmly
dimly	innocently	oddly	sharply	weakly
dreamily	instantly	often	sheepishly	well
easily	intensely	only	shrilly	wetly
excitedly	intently	openly	shyly	wildly
extremely	interestingly	painfully	silently	wisely
fairly	inwardly	partially	sleepily	worriedly
faithfully	irritably	patiently	slowly	wrongly

Mad libs is a fun way to include education and fun. They make a party fun. Players usually leave with a smile and with their creative juices flowing. Ensure to include mad libs at your next party!

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