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Gift Guide

Best Word Board Games for Family Game Night

You've guessed a few thousand phrases here — these are the games we'd put on the table when the screens go away. Picked for speed, noise level, and how quickly a seven-year-old can beat an adult.

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B A N

Bananagrams

1–8 players · 15 min · Ages 7+

The anagram race with no board and no waiting for your turn. First to use every tile wins, and the whole game packs into a banana pouch.

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S C R

Scrabble

2–4 players · 60+ min · Ages 10+

The classic for a reason: slower and more strategic than anything else here. The right pick if your family keeps score for keeps.

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B O G

Boggle

1–8 players · 3-min rounds · Ages 8+

Three minutes of shaking, staring and scribbling — the fastest way to get four people arguing about whether “qi” is a word.

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W R D

Wordle: The Party Game

2–4 players · 25 min · Ages 14+

The daily puzzle turned face-to-face: one player writes a secret word, everyone else races to crack it in six guesses.

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C O D

Codenames

4–8 players · 15 min · Ages 14+

A word-association duel: two teams, one-word clues, and a lot of shouting. The best pick for bigger groups and mixed ages.

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N Y T

NYT Big Book of Crosswords

Solo · Puzzle book

For the quiet end of the gift list: 150 easy-to-hard puzzles in an omnibus that lives on the coffee table until it's full of pencil marks.

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