Rebus Puzzles With Answers

What is a rebus puzzle?

A rebus puzzle hides a word or a saying in the way words and letters are drawn: where they sit, how big they are, which way they face and how many there are. Two examples that are not in the game, so they spoil nothing: HEAD written above WATER is keep your head above water, and TOWN in tiny letters is a small town. The name comes from Latin: a rebus says something “with things” instead of with words.

This page has 368 rebus puzzles with answers, all written for Linguaholic: 118 easy, 163 medium and 87 hard. Play them in rounds of ten with hints, try the daily rebus, play them as a team quiz, or print them. No registration, no sign-up, no account and no app: open the page and play, on a phone, a tablet or a computer.

Rebus puzzles with answers by theme

A few puzzles from every theme, easy to hard. Try each one first, then tap it to see the answer. Every theme can be played as a round or printed with its answer key.

How to play

Play: rounds of ten

1. Look at the puzzle and say out loud what you see: “a head above water”, “a tiny town”, “a word going up”.
2. Type the answer and press Check. Plurals, small spelling slips and a, an and the do not matter, and the game tells you when you are close: when you only described the picture, read it the wrong way round, or found part of a longer saying.
3. Stuck? The first hint is a clue, the second shows the first letter of every word.
4. A puzzle solved without a hint is worth 3 points and a star, with the clue 2, with the first letters 1. Solve several in a row for a streak.
5. A round has ten puzzles. Finish an Easy round to unlock Medium, and a Medium round to unlock Hard (or jump ahead if you like). Your best scores and the puzzles you solved are kept in your browser.
6. Liked one? Send it to a friend: the link opens that puzzle without giving the answer away.

Daily rebus

Three new puzzles every day, one easy, one medium and one hard, the same for everyone. A new set comes at midnight US Eastern time. Share your result (it shows ✓ and ✗, never the answers) and come back the next day to keep your streak.

Teams: a quiz on one screen

For a classroom, a party or game night. Name up to six teams, choose 5, 10 or 20 puzzles and the time per puzzle, and put the page on a big screen. When the time is up or someone shouts the answer, show it and give the point to the team that got it first. The game keeps the score and names the winner.

Print

Choose the level and themes and print 12, 24 or all of them as task cards: 12 cards a page, or 4 big cards a page for younger students, with a line for each answer and the answer key on a page of its own. Tick “Easy puzzles only” for younger classes. The sheet prints from this page, with no pop-up window; choose “Save as PDF” in the print window to keep a PDF. “Show on a big screen” shows the same puzzles one at a time, with a button for the answer.

How to solve rebus puzzles

Almost every rebus uses one of these tricks. Learn them and most puzzles fall into place.

Two more tips: read the puzzle from top to bottom and left to right, as you would a sentence, and try the little words (in, on, over, under, after) between the pieces.

Rebus puzzles with answers

All 368 puzzles of the game, by level. The answers are folded shut so you do not read them by accident: open a level to see the puzzles with their answers.

Easy rebus puzzles for kids

The easy level is made for children who can read short words: directions (upstairs, sit down), sizes (big deal) and numbers and letters (I O U). In class, put one on the board each morning, or play the team quiz with the easy level only. These are good first ones; the answers are under each puzzle:

Hard rebus puzzles for adults

The 87 hard puzzles hide longer sayings, combine two tricks, or ask you to notice what is missing. Try these first, the answers are folded in the list above:

Hard rebus puzzles with answers

Twelve of the hardest: long sayings with a word hidden inside another, numbers that stand for sounds, and pictures that need two readings. Give each one a real try, then tap it for the answer. To play all 87, choose the Hard round.

Christmas rebus puzzles

40 Christmas puzzles, from the North Pole to an old carol or two, easy to hard. Tap a puzzle for its answer, play them as a Christmas round, or print the Christmas rebus puzzles with an answer key for a class party or the family table.

Holiday rebus puzzles

110 puzzles for the holidays and seasons: 40 for Christmas, 11 for Halloween, 16 for Thanksgiving and fall, 17 for winter, 18 for Valentine’s Day, and 8 more for New Year’s Eve, Hanukkah, Easter and the Fourth of July. To play only those, pick a theme under the puzzle, or open all the holiday puzzles; to print them for a party, open Print and choose the theme.

Rebus puzzles for teachers and classrooms

Rebus puzzles make good lesson starters, early-finisher work and brain breaks: students read closely, talk about what they see and learn idioms along the way. A guide to the levels:

• Grades 2–3: the easy level, especially directions and sizes. Read the puzzles together the first few times, and print 4 big cards a page with “Easy puzzles only” ticked.
• Grades 4–5: easy and medium. The numbers-and-letters puzzles (4 = for, U = you) are a favorite, and the sayings are a fun way into idioms.
• Grades 6–8: medium and hard, as a team quiz or a weekly challenge on the board.
• Grades 9–12, ESL and adult learners: the hard sayings. Ask students to explain what each idiom means once they have solved it.

How to run it in class or at a team meeting

1. Open Print, choose a level and a theme, and press “Show on a big screen”: one puzzle at a time, with the answer behind a button (arrow keys and the space bar work too).
2. For a competition, open Teams instead: up to six teams, a timer, and the score kept for you.
3. For quiet work, print the task cards; the answer key comes out on its own page, so you can keep it.
4. The same works as a five-minute game for a team meeting or an office party: nobody needs an account or an app.

Word picture puzzles vs rebus puzzles: what is the difference?

Mostly just the name. In Britain the same kind of word picture puzzle is often called a dingbat, while “rebus puzzle” is the usual name in the United States. Strictly speaking, a classic rebus can also use pictures that sound like syllables (a drawing of an eye for “I”), while the word puzzles you will usually see under the other names lean on words and letters placed in clever ways, which is what the puzzles on this page do. Other names you may meet are word picture puzzles, picture word puzzles and wordies.

Topics

Make your own rebus puzzle

1. Start from the answer: a saying with a little word in it (in, over, under, up, back) is easiest.
2. Turn the little word into a position or a direction: “keep your head above water” becomes HEAD written above WATER.
3. Turn numbers and sizes into pictures: “small town” is TOWN in tiny letters, and “two left feet” could be FEET FEET with LEFT over them.
4. Test it on someone. If you have to explain it, change it.

Is it private?

Yes. The puzzles are part of the page and the game runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere. There is no registration, no sign-up, no account and no app. Your best scores, the puzzles you solved and your daily streak are kept in your own browser only, and clearing your browser data removes them.

More word games: the Rhyme Game, Hangman and the Charades Generator.