275 battle-tested words in 11 categories — steal a few for your next round, or let the game draw one in secret so nobody sees it coming.
Quick recap of the game: everyone secretly sees the same word — except the impostor, who sees nothing and has to bluff through everyone's questions. That means a good word has to do two jobs at once: be instantly familiar to every player, and leave room for sneaky, indirect questions. Too obscure and the round stalls; too narrow and the first answer gives it away.
Every word below was hand-picked from the 5,000+ word bank of The Impostor — the free imposter word game you play on one phone with 3–20 players — using exactly that rule.
The game draws a word in secret from these same 11 categories, so even the person setting up the round can't cheat. No app, no sign-up, works offline.
▶ Play free now25 hand-picked words from each of the game's 11 categories. Jump to a category:
The Impostor draws from over 5,000 English words in these same 11 categories — in secret, so nobody sees it coming. One phone, 3–20 players, zero prep, works offline.
🎭 Start a round now — freeNo app. No sign-up. Also available in Hebrew.
A great round lives or dies on the word. The impostor should be able to survive a question or two — and the citizens should be able to ask about it from several angles without spelling it out.
Concrete, everyday nouns that everyone in the room knows and that have several angles to ask about. Pizza is a perfect example: it's food, it's round, it's Italian, it's greasy, it's a party order — plenty of indirect questions without giving it away. The 275 words on this page were hand-picked from a 5,000+ word bank using exactly that rule.
One word per round, and a typical game night runs 8–12 rounds. You can pull words from this list — or let The Impostor draw them automatically from over 5,000 English words, in secret, so nobody ever sees the word in advance and you never repeat.
Yes. The entire word bank is family-friendly, and every word here is something kids recognize too — which is exactly what makes a round work with mixed ages. Grandparents, teens and kids can all play the same round.
Yes — The Impostor has a host mode with a hidden input field: the host types a secret word (an inside joke works great), sits the round out, and everyone else plays. Otherwise the game draws the word in secret so even the person setting up can't cheat.
Usually the opposite. If half the group barely knows the word, the questions stall and the impostor hides in the confusion for free. The challenge should come from bluffing and reading people — not from vocabulary. For beginner impostors, the game also has an optional category hint.
