Free Online Word Games to Recommend to Students
As schoolchildren, we all played games designed to help us learn and memorize important information. Games are a fantastic way to make learning more engaging and fun than simple drills and worksheets. And best of all, these benefits of games don't disappear just because we're a little older.
In reality, we have easier access to games than ever before through our phones and PCs. And while it's easy to find games of all types, this article will focus specifically on word games you can recommend to students to both strengthen their existing English skills and enhance it with new information. The skill levels these games are appropriate for vary widely, so be sure to pay attention to the suggested level for each.
Various games from LearnEnglish Kids
The LearnEnglish Kids site has a variety of activities that are suitable for younger learners. The link above will take you to an alphabetical index of games organized around specific themes. For example, students can match words with the pictures they see for things like household chores, body parts and emotions.
Recommended level: Beginner
Word Scramble
In Word Scramble, players are given five letters and must use them to create as many words as they can.
At the top of the game screen are spaces representing the words players must spell to win. Each word that is successfully spelled will reveal a letter in one space, providing a clue to other words left to reveal.
Players begin with four minutes and forty seconds, and time remaining in each round will carry over to the next.
Recommended level: Intermediate
Outspell
In this game, players take turns with an AI opponent, using their letter tiles to spell out words on a grid. Tiles placed on special squares will result in higher scores, as will using trickier letters like Q and Y. Once all of the player's and computer's letter tiles are gone, the highest score wins.
The difficulty of the computer can be adjusted, but even on easy, some of the words the AI spells can be uncommon in daily conversation. So encourage students to have a dictionary handy — and to come to you with questions about words whose practical or professional use they may be curious about.
Recommended level: Intermediate
Spell It
The rules to this game are quite simple: after players listen to a word, they have 15 seconds to type in the correct spelling. One round consists of 10 words.
The words come in four levels of challenge, but they appear randomly and there is no way to adjust the difficulty. As a result, this game is best for students who are at least at the intermediate level.
Recommended level: Intermediate - Advanced
Spellbound
In this game, players are given seven letters plus a minute and thirty seconds to create as many words as they can using them. Creating words with only three or four letters is not very challenging, but using most — or even all — of the letters is much more difficult and will really test students' vocabulary.
If players get stuck, there is a button they can press to get a new set of letters, but this can only be done a limited number of times per game.
Recommended level: Intermediate - Advanced
Odd Word Out
This game is a great choice for students who want to test or expand their knowledge of idioms.
In each round, players are presented with four words; three of them can complete a common expression. The player must choose the "odd word out," or the word which does not fit with the others.
As an example, players may be shown the following words:
- Scenes
- Times
- Scissors
- Eight ball
"Behind the scenes," "behind the times" and "behind the eight ball" are all common idioms, but "behind the scissors" is not. Therefore, "scissors" is the correct answer.
What's handy is that after an answer is selected, text appears that lets the player know the rest of the phrase: "Scenes, times and eight ball all complete a common phrase when following 'behind the __'." This allows students to easily look up each expression that is new to them.
There is a timer, but it can be turned off if players don't want extra pressure.
Since answering every question may make it more likely for students to forget what they learn, encourage them to only play for as long as it is helpful for them. After all, they can always come back later when they are ready to learn more.
Recommended level: Advanced
Syl La Cros Tic
As you might guess from the name, this game is slightly unusual. On the right side of the game screen is a list of clues. On the left side is a grid of syllables. Instead of searching for the word that matches each clue, players must use the pieces of different words to "build" the answers!
For example, if the clue is "outside the law," players would select the syllables "il," "le" and "gal" from the left side to spell "illegal," the correct answer. Some of the clues can be quite challenging, so we only recommend this game for higher-level students.
Recommended level: Advanced
Twofer Goofer
Here, players must use the clues to discover a pair of rhyming words. The first clue is quite tricky, but if players need help, further clues give the number of syllables for each word, a blurry picture depicting the answer, and a more direct hint.
An example hint and answer:
- "A courtroom lie about a medical procedure." > Surgery Perjury
Don't forget that just like the name of the game itself, the correct pair of words only rhyme — they do not make sense together! This game is definitely only for experienced students who need a tough challenge.
Recommended level: Advanced
Wrap-up
Games can be a fun and engaging way of enhancing anyone's learning experience. Thankfully, everything we've presented here is completely free to play and requires no registration — although, especially competitive students who want to record their scores will need to log in.
We do have to warn you, however, that these games aren't only for learners; if you try one of them yourself, you might spend more time with it than you expected to!
