Codenames: Rules, Editions and Expansion Packs

What Codenames is

Codenames is a word game for two teams. Twenty-five cards, each with one word, are laid out in a 5 × 5 grid. Some of those words are your team's secret agents, some belong to the other team, some are innocent bystanders, and one is the assassin. Only the two spymasters know which is which.

Each spymaster gives one-word clues to steer their team toward their own agents. The first team to find all of its agents wins. The team that touches the assassin loses on the spot.

It's competitive and team-based, which is rare among party games. You're not scoring alone. You're trying to read one person's mind while the other team watches.

Here's what Czech Games Edition's page for the 2025 edition states:

• Players: 4 to 8+
• Ages: 10+
• Length: 15 minutes
• Designer: Vlaada Chvátil
• In the box: 200 cards with 400 codenames, 16 agent tiles in two colors, 1 double agent tile, 7 innocent bystander tiles, 1 assassin tile, 40 key cards, a rulebook and a card stand

The publisher calls this a new edition with a revised word list, new art and a streamlined rulebook. That's the edition sold here as Codenames (2nd Edition).

How Codenames plays

The rules below are in my own words, from Czech Games Edition's English Codenames rulebook for the 2025 edition. I won't copy their examples, and their examples are better than mine anyway.

Setup

1. Split into two teams of about the same size, at least two players each.
2. Each team picks one spymaster. Everyone else is an operative.
3. The two spymasters sit on the same side of the table, facing their teammates.
4. Shuffle the word cards and lay out 25 of them in a 5 × 5 grid.
5. The spymasters draw one key card at random and put it in the stand between them. Only they look at it.
6. Each spymaster takes their team's 8 agent tiles. The 7 bystanders and the assassin go in the middle.
7. The key card's edge shows which team goes first. That team gets the double agent tile in its color, so it has 9 words to find instead of 8.

The key card is the whole secret of the game. It maps the grid: which positions are red, which are blue, which are bystanders and which one is the assassin.

A turn, start to finish

1. The spymaster gives one clue. It's one word plus one number. The word points at some of the team's words; the number says how many.
2. The operatives talk it over. Then one of them touches a card as their guess.
3. The spymaster covers it with the tile the key card shows for that spot.
4. Right guess, keep going. If it's your team's word, you can guess again. That's another guess, not another clue.
5. Wrong guess, stop. A bystander ends your turn. The other team's word ends your turn and helps them. The assassin ends the game, and your team loses.

You must make at least one guess each turn. You can stop early if the next guess looks risky. And as long as you keep guessing right, you can make one more guess than the clue's number. That extra guess is how a team catches a word it missed on an earlier clue.

Winning

The game ends when one team has no words left to find. That team wins, even if the other team turned over its last word by mistake. A team also wins the moment the other team touches the assassin.

At the end, flip the 25 cards over. The other side has words too, so you're set up for the next game already. That might be the best setup rule I've ever read.

What counts as a fair clue

The rulebook spends real space on this, and it's worth reading before game one. In short, a clue has to be about the meaning of words:

• No clues about spelling, letters or where a card sits on the table
• No word that's visible on the table, in any form, until that card is covered
• No piece of a compound word that's showing
• No accents or tunes to sneak in a hint
• Play in English; a foreign word only if your group would use it in an English sentence

When a spymaster isn't sure a clue is fair, they quietly ask the other spymaster. If an unfair clue slips through, the turn ends with no guesses, and the other spymaster gets to cover one of their own words. The rulebook also says groups can agree to loosen some of this, like allowing two-word names.

Lucho asked once if "Bay Three" counts as one word. It does not. The opposing spymaster said so before I could.

The hardest job at the table

The spymaster can't react. No wince when the operatives talk themselves toward the wrong card, no smile when they get close. The rulebook asks spymasters to keep a straight face and operatives not to watch them for hints.

June is 11 and the best spymaster in our house, mostly because her face does nothing. She once watched me talk myself into the assassin for a full minute. She didn't blink. She just reached for the tile.

Optional clues for experienced groups

The rulebook adds two clue types for groups that know the game:

• Unlimited. Instead of a number, say "unlimited." Your team can keep guessing as long as they're right, but they don't know how many words you meant.
• Zero. A clue with 0 means "avoid the words this points to." It also allows unlimited guesses, and it's sneakier than it sounds.

The publisher's Codenames Companion phone app adds timers and random keys, if your group wants to play faster.

Codenames editions on Amazon US right now

Our data for this page lists six Codenames games and two expansion packs on Amazon US as of October 2026. The table above shows players, age and play time where each listing states them. A dash means the listing doesn't say.

The word game

• Codenames (2nd Edition) (Czech Games Edition): minimum 4 players, word guessing, listed as the 2nd Edition. This is the box the rulebook above comes from.
• Codenames: XXL (2nd Edition) (Czech Games Edition): minimum 4 players, word guessing. The publisher describes XXL as the same game on oversized cards, for large groups and players with visual impairments.

Pick XXL if the grid is going to be read from across a room, or if someone at the table finds standard cards hard to read. Otherwise the standard 2nd Edition is the plain game.

Pictures

Codenames: Pictures (2nd Edition) (Czech Games Edition) lists a minimum of 4 players. The 2025 rulebook lists Pictures for 4 to 8. Same teams, same spymaster job, but the grid is pictures. It changes what a good clue looks like. A picture can mean five things at once, and that's both the fun and the trouble.

Themed and family editions

• Codenames: Back to Hogwarts (Czech Games Edition): minimum 4 players, word guessing. The publisher calls it a Wizarding World edition with new mechanics of its own.
• Codenames: Critical Role Adventures (Czech Games Edition): the listing gives no players or age. The publisher describes it as a fully cooperative game where characters level up and gain abilities and items.
• Codenames Family Edition (Disney) (USAopoly): ages 8+, 2 or more players, word guessing.

The Disney Family Edition is the only Codenames in our data that lists an age under 10 and a minimum under 4. If your family table is a 9-year-old plus two grown-ups, that's the box whose listing fits.

Expansion packs

Both packs list ages 10+, 4 to 8 players and 15 minutes, and both are marked as expansions. You need a base game to play either.

• Codenames: Fairy Tales Expansion Pack: 50 words, 3 agent tiles and 4 picture cards, per the publisher. It works with Codenames and Codenames: Duet, and its picture cards go with Pictures.
• Codenames: Cute Critters Expansion Pack: 40 pictures, made for Codenames: Pictures, per the publisher.

The publisher says there are no new rules to learn with these packs: you shuffle the new cards into the game you own. So check which base game you have before you order. Cute Critters goes with Pictures, not the word game.

Who Codenames suits

Here's my one opinion for this page: buy for your usual group size, not the biggest number on the box. Codenames needs two teams of at least two, so 4 is the real minimum for the standard game. A house that's three people most nights will spend more time wishing for a fourth than playing. At 6 to 8 it's at its best, with real team talk.

It also suits groups that like words and don't mind a little pressure. Most of the fun is watching your team argue about what a clue meant.

Who should skip Codenames

Skip it if your usual game night is two players and you want to compete. Look for Codenames: Duet for two, or a two-player game. Skip it, too, for kids younger than the starting age on the box: 10+ on the standard game and the packs, 8+ on the Disney Family Edition. The clues need a wide vocabulary, and the spymaster job is hard even for adults.

And skip it if your group hates quiet. A good Codenames turn has a long pause in it. Some tables love that. Some tables fill it with snacks.

If you like Codenames, look at these

Pages chosen by what they share with Codenames: word clues, teams and a table of 4 or more.

• Party games: more games for 6 or more
• Taboo: clue-giving with forbidden words
• Catch Phrase: fast team word guessing
• The Chameleon: a word game with a bluff in the middle

For more from the publisher, see the Czech Games Edition brand page.

One word, one number. Then keep a straight face.