How to play
The rules, in order.
Hush is a party word game for two or more players. You describe the word on your card out loud, without saying it and without using any of the five forbidden words listed underneath it, while everyone else shouts guesses. It takes about twenty minutes and nobody has to read a rulebook aloud.
A turn, start to finish
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Open a room and share the code
One person opens Hush and starts a room. The screen shows a four-letter code. Read it out, or let the others scan it. Everyone joins the same room from their own phone, tablet or laptop. Nobody signs up and nobody installs anything to join.
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The host sets the house rules
The host picks the category, the difficulty (easy, medium or hard), how long a turn runs (60, 90 or 120 seconds), and how many rounds the night has room for. Then they tap Take it away, and the settings seal for the game.
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The describer gets a word, and a list they cannot use
On your turn your phone shows one word, say Martini, and underneath it the five words you may not say: olive, gin, vermouth, shaken, Bond. Nobody else can see any of it. Those five are always the words you most want, which is the whole game.
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Describe it out loud
Talk. Say anything you like except the word itself and the five forbidden ones. Gestures, stories, terrible impressions. All fair. Say one of the forbidden words and the turn is over.
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The room shouts guesses
Everyone else calls out guesses out loud. There is nothing to tap and nothing to type. Guessers just shout. Only the describer touches their screen.
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Tap Got it, or Pass
When somebody lands the word, the describer taps Got it and the next card arrives immediately. If a card is hopeless, tap Pass and move on. Keep going until the clock runs out.
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The turn passes on
When time is up the turn moves to the next player. A round is one full lap of the table. The host can pause, resume or change the topic between turns without anyone losing their place.
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Most words landed takes the night
Scores are kept for you. Whoever has landed the most words by the final round wins, and a dead heat shares the bow.
What a card looks like
Your word
Martini
You may not say
- olive
- gin
- vermouth
- shaken
- Bond
So you reach for the long way round. "The one in the cone-shaped glass. Very dry. There's a spy who orders it wrong." And someone at the table has it before you finish the sentence.
House rules worth knowing
- Guessers just shout. Only the describer taps anything. There is nothing to type.
- Say a forbidden word and the turn ends. The table will let you know.
- Skip belongs to the host, and takes three taps, so it cannot happen by accident.
- Settings seal at the start. The host sets the timer, rounds and topic before the first turn.
- Difficulty is graded per category, not against a global scale. "Easy" means easy for that deck.
What you can play with
Over 14,000 cards across eleven categories. Three of them, more than 3,000 cards, are free forever, with no account and no advertising.
More questions? Read the answers, or see what's on the card.