---
title: "How to play a Hebrew word-explaining party game"
slug: "hebrew-alias-style-word-game"
canonical: "https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-alias-style-word-game"
question: "How do you play a word-explaining party game like Alias or Taboo in Hebrew, and what are the rules?"
answer: "Split into teams of two or more (four players minimum). One explainer per turn has sixty seconds to get their team to say Hebrew words, one card at a time, without saying the word, part of it, a rhyme, or spelling it; the other teams referee and call fouls. A guessed word moves the team one space forward, a skip or a foul one space back, and when time runs out the last word is open to every team. Cards that carry the Hebrew with nikud, a transliteration and the English let Israelis and English speakers play together; explaining may be in either language, but the team must say the Hebrew word. Ali in the baba app plays these rules on one phone per team; a paper version works with any word list and a kitchen timer."
description: "The rules of the Hebrew word-explaining party game genre (the Alias and Taboo family): setup, a turn, fouls, special spaces, tips for mixed tables, house rules, and how to play with paper."
cluster: "learning"
html_status: "live"
updated: "2026-09-22"
numbers_used: "[\"60 seconds\", \"30 spaces\", \"4 players minimum\", \"108 slang cards\", \"1,300 cards\"]"
competitors_named: "[]"
---

# How to play a Hebrew word-explaining party game

A word-explaining game gives one player a word and a timer and asks them to make their team say it without saying it. Alias, Taboo and many living-room variants share the idea and differ in the penalties: Taboo bans a list of related words, Alias bans the word and its parts and lets the other teams catch you. In Hebrew the rules do not change; the table does. Half of it may read the word fluently and half may need a transliteration. The rules below are those of Ali, the game inside the free baba app (https://www.itsbaba.com/ali), and they work just as well with a printed list and a kitchen timer. Ali is its own game and is not connected to the makers of Alias.

## Setup

- Two to six teams of two to six people, so four players minimum. Three or four per team is the sweet spot.
- One phone per team. The host starts a game and gets a four-letter code; every other team joins on its own phone by code, by scanning the QR, or from a link shared on WhatsApp.
- The language rule: the host decides whether explaining is in Hebrew, English or both. Both is the default and the right call for a mixed table.

## A turn

One player is the explainer. The hourglass runs sixty seconds and the phone shows one card: the Hebrew word with nikud, the transliteration, and the English. The explainer talks, gestures, hums, anything that gets the team to say the Hebrew word. Got It moves the team's pin one space forward and shows the next card; Skip drops the word and moves the pin one space back.

The other teams see the same card on their phones and referee. If the explainer says the word, any part of it, a rhyme, or starts spelling it, a referee calls a foul: the card is lost and the pin moves one space back.

When the sand runs out a beep sounds and the last word on the card is open to every team. The first team to say it takes the space. Then the next team's explainer takes over.

## The board and the special spaces

The board is a thirty-space road up a map of Israel from Eilat to Jerusalem, shown on every phone with every team's pin. Three kinds of space change the next turn:

- Hebrew Only: the next turn is explained in Hebrew alone.
- Slang: every card on the next turn is Israeli slang (there are 108 slang cards in the pool).
- Everyone Plays: all teams guess at once, and each word goes to whoever says it first.

## Explaining a Hebrew word to someone with no Hebrew

- Start from the English on the card and describe the thing; the team then has to find the Hebrew in its own memory, which is the learning. Giving the first letter counts as spelling.
- Use the cognates: טלפון, אוניברסיטה, מוזיקה, פיצה, בנק. "It sounds like the English word" is a legal, fast clue. Watch for false friends (גן is a garden, not a gun).
- Gesture and sound: miming works across languages. Humming a song the word appears in is a classic Israeli move.
- Point at the room: half of everyday vocabulary is on the table. "This, in Hebrew" is legal, and the guessers still have to remember the word.

## Explaining an English word to an Israeli

- The word the team wants is the Hebrew one. Explain the meaning in Hebrew and let the English speakers on the team read the guess off the transliteration once someone says it.
- Opposites and pairs are the fastest clues: "the opposite of חם" for קר, "אבא ו..." for אמא.
- When a Hebrew Only space bites, an English-speaking team with one Israeli does fine; a team with none guesses from gestures and the words it already knows. Skip generously and take the open word at the end of the turn.
- Slang is a story, not a definition. Explain the situation the word lives in.

## House rules, ready to read aloud

1. Four players minimum, in teams of two or more. A team shares one phone or one stack of cards.
2. One explainer per turn, sixty seconds, one word at a time. The explainer may talk in Hebrew, English or both unless the table has locked a language.
3. The team must say the Hebrew word. Saying the English is a nice try, not a point.
4. A guessed word moves the team one space forward. A skipped word moves it one space back.
5. The other teams referee. Saying the word, any part of it, a rhyme, or spelling it is a foul: the card is lost and the pin goes one space back.
6. Gestures, sounds, "it sounds like", "it rhymes with" and "the opposite of" are fair. Translating the word straight out is not.
7. When the time runs out, the last word is open to everyone. The first team to say it takes the space.
8. Hebrew Only: the next turn is explained in Hebrew alone. Slang: the next turn is all slang. Everyone Plays: every team guesses at once.
9. A dispute goes to the referees, majority wins, and the sand keeps running.
10. First team to the last space wins. Ties are broken by one sudden-death word, open to everyone.

## Playing with paper instead of the app

Take any word list with the Hebrew, a transliteration and the English on each line (the 300-word list at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-word-game-words works), cut it into slips and shuffle them face down in a bowl. Draw a row of thirty boxes on a sheet of paper, mark the first Eilat and the last Jerusalem, and give each team a coin as its pin. Circle six boxes at random and label two Hebrew Only, two Slang and two Everyone Plays. Set a timer to sixty seconds.

Play exactly as above: one explainer, one slip at a time, guessed slips in one pile and skipped slips in another, the other teams reading over the explainer's shoulder as referees. At the end of the turn count the piles, move the coin, and pass the bowl. Keep the slang slips in a second bowl for Slang turns.

What you lose is what the app does for you: the random draw with no repeats, the hourglass on every phone, the referees seeing the card without leaning over, and the board that keeps itself. What you keep is the game.

## Frequently asked questions

**How do you play Alias in Hebrew?** You play the same genre with Hebrew cards: teams, one explainer per turn, a timer, and a word the team has to say in Hebrew. Ali in the baba app is built for that, with every card showing the Hebrew with nikud, a transliteration and the English, and the other teams refereeing from their own phones. Ali is not connected to the makers of Alias.

**What are the rules of a word-explaining game?** One player explains words to their team against a timer without saying the word, part of it, a rhyme, or spelling it. Each guessed word is a space forward, each skip costs one, and the other teams watch for fouls.

**Can English speakers play with Israelis?** Yes, if the cards carry the Hebrew, a transliteration and the English, and explaining is allowed in either language. The team still has to say the Hebrew word.

**What is a Hebrew Only space?** A space that forces the next turn to be explained in Hebrew alone.

**Can we play without the app?** Yes, with a printed word list, a timer and a sheet of paper as the board.

**How many words do we need for one game?** A turn burns eight to fifteen cards and a four-team game runs six to ten rounds, so 250 to 400 cards keeps a game from repeating. The 300 words on this site are enough for one evening; the app plays from about 1,300.

## Related

- Ali in the baba app: https://www.itsbaba.com/ali
- 300 Hebrew words for a word party: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-word-game-words

Alias is a trademark of Tactic Games Oy. baba is not affiliated with or endorsed by Tactic Games.