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Hard Pictionary words, and how to draw them

242 words rated Hard in Drawdle: ideas like gravity and déjà vu, animals that look like other animals, and corporate slang you can't draw at all. Below are four tricks that get them guessed anyway, each worked through on words from this list.

Open the word generator

What makes a word hard

A word is rated Hard when a quick drawing can't pin it down. Most are one of three kinds.

You can't draw these directly, so you draw around them. Four tricks do most of the work.

Four tricks for drawing hard words

Split it into parts

Draw each part, with a plus sign between them. In Drawdle the blanks above the drawing already show guessers how many words there are.

Draw a sound-alike

When a word won't draw, draw words that sound like it. Guessers say what they see, and someone hears the answer.

Use symbols and arrows

Arrows show movement and change: draw the before, an arrow, then the after. Simple symbols do the rest, like a heart for love or a lightbulb for an idea.

Act out a scene

Draw a moment everybody has lived or seen, with stick figures. Verbs, feelings and films work best this way.

One rule for every trick: no letters or numbers. For “3 idiots”, draw three grinning faces in graduation caps.

Everyday things 22 words

Animals 23 words

Food & drink 20 words

Desi 26 words

Office stuff 5 words

Actions 15 words

Places 14 words

Nature & weather 13 words

Sports & games 10 words

Tech & gadgets 21 words

Jobs & people 16 words

Fantasy & fun 12 words

Corporate slang 45 words

Questions

Why is something simple like a coaster rated hard?

It's easy to draw and hard to guess: a coaster looks like a plate, a coin or a biscuit. Words are rated Hard when the drawing is easily mistaken for something else, not only when the idea is abstract.

What if nobody can guess it?

In Drawdle, letters of the word appear as the clock runs down, so most hard words fall in the end. The host can allow up to five hint letters and give each drawing up to four minutes.

How do I play only these words online?

Press Play these online at the top. Drawdle opens with these 242 words as your next room's own word list, and plays only those. Choosing Hard in a room's settings is different: any word can come up, Hard ones included.

How do you guess hard words faster?

Say what you see, piece by piece: “ant… elope… antelope!” Wrong guesses cost nothing in Drawdle, and a near miss gets a private “is close!” to keep you going. A plus sign or an arrow is the drawer telling you how to read the picture.

Are hard words too hard for children?

Usually, yes: they're abstract ideas, rare animals and office talk. For children, the words for kids, checked for them and sorted by age, work much better. The easy words suit family games across ages.

Ready to watch a friend draw “déjà vu”? On Hard, any word can come up, these ones included.

Start a game on Hard