Written by Bryan Jones, creator of Imposter and 25 other games played 40M+ times
Reviewed by Cami Childs, award-winning game designer. Formerly Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune
Updated 2026
The full rules, scoring and variations go into the details, including how to run it on paper if you would rather not use a screen.
The imposter game, also spelled impostor, is a party game for three or more players and it is best with six to ten. Everyone is shown the same secret word except one person. That person is the imposter, and they have to bluff their way through the round without anyone working out who they are.
Players take turns saying one word about the secret word. The imposter does not know it, so they have to guess what everyone is describing and blend in. After a few times around the circle the group votes on who they think it is. Catch the imposter and the group wins. Slip past everyone and the imposter wins, and they can win outright by guessing the secret word.
There is nothing to write out and nothing to print. The imposter game generator above is the word picker: it chooses a secret word and deals it to each player privately, so whoever would otherwise be stuck organising gets to play too.
If you would rather play offline, or you are somewhere with no signal at all, you can print a sheet of words and run the whole thing on paper.
It has been running since the imposter trend started in 2025 and it is still being changed based on what players tell us. Here is the evidence behind all of that.
Both spellings work. Most people write "imposter", while "impostor" is the standard dictionary spelling. Plenty of groups know it by what you do in it rather than by a name, so you will hear the same game called guess the imposter, find the imposter, or who's the imposter.
At least three, and it is best with six to ten. It scales past that if you add more imposters.
Yes. Free to play in your browser with no download and no signup.
Yes, that is what it is built for. Pass one device around and it deals each player their word, so there is nothing to print and nothing to install.
The group wins by voting out the imposter. The imposter wins by staying hidden, or by guessing the secret word.
Everyone is shown the same secret word except one person, the imposter. Players take turns saying one word about it. The imposter does not know the word, so they have to guess from everyone else's clues and blend in. After a few passes the group votes. Catch the imposter and the group wins. Slip past everyone, or guess the secret word, and the imposter wins.
It means one person at the table does not know the secret word everyone else was given, and has to fake it convincingly enough that nobody votes them out. Being the imposter is the fun part. You are improvising from nothing while trying to work out what everyone is talking about.
You already are. This runs in a browser, so there is nothing to download on any device, and your friends do not need to install anything either. If you would rather have no screens at all, print a sheet of words and play it on paper.
Say something broad enough to fit almost anything, and say it without hesitating. "Fun", "big", "old", "warm". The hesitation gives you away far more often than the word does. Once you have heard two or three clues you can usually narrow it down, so the goal early on is just to survive without sounding like you are stalling. Going first is the hardest seat in the game.
Give a clue that proves you know the word without handing it to the imposter. New players almost always land too close to the word, and the round is over before it has started.
It helps to know there are eight different ways into any word: what it is like, a part of it, where you find it, what it does, what it is made of, what it leaves you with, what it stands for, and something near it but not it. Most people reach for the same one or two and never think of the rest.
Say the word is Banana. The first player says "fruit", the next says "yellow", and everyone at the table has it, including the imposter. It goes the same way if the second clue is "monkey", or "peel", or "curved". None of those is a bad clue on its own, and any of them is fine as the opener. All of them are fatal once "fruit" has been said, because they point at the same obvious side of the word. "Smoothie", "energy" or "jungle" prove you know it and still leave the imposter something to work out.
So the real skill is listening. Hear what has already been said, then come in from a direction nobody has used yet. The full guide covers the whole framework, including the test every word passes before it goes in the game.
You do not, and a version where you could would be a bad game. What you can do is stop losing for avoidable reasons: as a real player, give a clue that proves you know the word without handing it over, and as the imposter, match the specificity of whatever everyone else is saying. People get caught for being too vague, then overcorrect and get caught for being too specific.
Yes, three is the minimum. It plays differently with a small group because there is nowhere to hide, so rounds are quicker and the imposter is under pressure immediately. Six to ten is the sweet spot, but three works.
Not really, and it is worth explaining why rather than just saying no. With two players, one of you is the imposter and the other one knows it, so there is nobody to deceive and nothing to deduce. The game needs a third person for the imposter to hide behind. If there are only two of you, we have other games that work better at that size.
Yes, from about age ten and up, and it is just as good for adults. It is a family game rather than a children's game, and the difference matters: it is built so a whole table can play together, not so an adult can run it for the kids. The easy word lists are there for exactly that, a mixed group where everyone has something they can give a clue for. Every word is reviewed before it ships and there is no adult category. It gets played at kitchen tables and in classrooms, which is the standard we hold it to.
It works both ways. If your group is together you can play right here on one screen. If people are in different places, start an online game, share the link, and everyone plays from their own device.
Whether any particular site gets past a filter is down to your school, not to us, and anyone promising you otherwise is guessing. But if a school is going to allow one imposter game, we would like it to be this one, and there is a real case for it.
There is nothing to download and no account to create, so there is no install for a locked-down machine to refuse. More to the point, every word in it is reviewed before it ships and there is no adult category, deliberately. Several of the alternatives have one tucked away somewhere. This is a family games company, and the game gets played in classrooms, so it is built to survive a teacher looking over a shoulder.
If it is caught by a blanket rule about games, that is worth asking a teacher about rather than working around. A reviewed, family-friendly word game is a much easier thing to get approved than a games site nobody can vouch for.
Yes, and that is how most people run it. Set a number of rounds, keep score, and the imposter challenge is to survive a full game without being caught. It works for a few friends or a whole classroom.