Codenames
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46 free Codenames trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Codenames is the party game that turned one word and a number into a whole evening. Vlaada Chvátil designed it, Czech Games Edition published it in 2015, and a year later it won the Spiel des Jahres. Two spymasters, a five-by-five grid of words, a black assassin square nobody wants to touch, and the agonising choice of whether to take that bonus guess. These 46 questions start with the rules people argue about: how many cards go on the table, what the lights on a key card mean, why phonetic clues are frowned on, what happens after an invalid clue, and whether you have to guess at all. Then the spin-offs: the adult Deep Undercover sold only at Target, the surreal Pictures deck, the Disney, Marvel, Simpsons and Harry Potter editions, the two-player Duet co-designed by Scot Eaton, the XXL boxes and the Blizzard edition that was never sold. There are questions on the 38 languages and six alphabets, the apps, and the designer's other work from Through the Ages to Galaxy Trucker. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a game-night tiebreaker.
30 of 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who designed Codenames?
Vlaada Chvátil
Vlaada Chvátil. He made his name with an epic civilization game, a long way from a party game of one-word clues, and is lead designer at the game's publisher, whose first releases included one of his designs.
Q 02Which company publishes Codenames?
Czech Games Edition
Czech Games Edition. It was founded in 2007 by a team that had just made a strategy game together and decided that publishing games was what they wanted to do for a living.
Q 03Later Codenames printings lowered which figure on the box?
Age
Age. The first edition was marked 14 and up, later printings cut that to 10, and the relaunched 2025 edition still says 10.
Q 04In Codenames: Duet, what colour are all the agent cards?
Green
Green. Duet has no rival teams, since everyone at the table is on the same side, so the two team colours of the original give way to a single one.
Q 05In Codenames, what is the clue-giving player on each team called?
Spymaster
Spymaster. The two rivals sit side by side and share a single key card, which shows both of them which of the 25 words belong to each team.
Q 06In Codenames, what are the guessing players on each team called?
Field operatives
Field operatives. They may debate a clue openly among themselves, and they are free to stop early, but they must make at least one guess every turn.
Q 07What is printed on the back of each Codenames word card?
Another codename
Another codename. Each of the 200 cards carries a different word on each face, 400 in all, which is why the original rulebook says to flip half the deck now and then while shuffling.
Q 08In Codenames, what colour is the assassin's square on the key card?
Black
Black. It is the only square of its kind among the 25, which is why careful clue-givers check a clue against that one word before saying anything aloud.
Q 09In Codenames, what colour are the innocent bystanders' squares on the key card?
Beige
Beige. Seven of the 25 squares are these neutral passers-by, and touching one costs a team nothing but the rest of its turn.
Q 10What are the two teams' colours in Codenames?
Red and blue
Red and blue. Each side has eight agent tiles in its colour, and to balance the advantage of moving first, the team that opens has a ninth agent to find.
Q 11In Codenames, what do the four lights around the edge of the key card show?
Which team goes first
Which team goes first. The lights are printed in the opening team's colour, and that team gives the first clue but also has one more agent to find than its rival.
Q 12What does the number in a Codenames clue tell the guessers?
How many words it fits
How many words it fits. A clue is one word plus that number, so 'tree: 2' asks for two cards, such as NUT and BARK, and the rulebook rates linking four with one clue a big accomplishment.
Q 13What is the most guesses a Codenames team may make after a normal clue?
The stated count plus one
Q 21Which Codenames spin-off is an adults-only edition packed with double entendres?
Deep Undercover
Deep Undercover. The rules are exactly those of the family game: only the word cards changed, to a deck of innuendo that put a parental advisory label on the box.
Q 22Which Codenames game uses a five-by-four grid?
Codenames: Pictures
Codenames: Pictures. Its surreal drawings are dealt 20 at a time, and the rulebook lets players mix them into a single grid with the word cards of the original game.
Q 23The 'Assassin Ending' variant of Codenames: Pictures, where a team must find the assassin to win, is likened to which game?
Eight-ball pool
The stated count plus one. The spare guess is there so that a team can go back for a word it missed on an earlier turn.
Q 14What does finding its own agent earn a Codenames team?
Another guess
Another guess. It gets no new clue, though, and after the one guess a team has to make each turn it is free to stop and save the rest of its ideas for later.
Q 15What extra penalty follows an invalid clue in Codenames, besides losing the turn?
The rivals reveal a free agent
The rivals reveal a free agent. Their clue-giver may cover one of their own words before the next clue, but only if somebody objects: an invalid clue that nobody notices simply stands.
Q 16Which type of hint do the Codenames rules discourage?
Phonetic
Phonetic. A clue has to work through meaning, so the rulebook allows SNAIL for MAIL, a common phrase, but not for SCALE, where the only link is the rhyme.
Q 17In Codenames, what happens when a team reveals one of the other side's agents?
Their turn ends immediately
Their turn ends immediately. Touching an innocent bystander does the same: either slip hands the table to the rivals, however many guesses the clue still allowed.
Q 18What timing device came in the box of the original 2015 edition of Codenames?
A sand hourglass
A sand hourglass. The rulebook admits it is rarely used: any player may flip it to hurry someone who is thinking too long, or even turn it on themselves.
Q 19According to the original Codenames rulebook, how do just two players play?
As one team against a dummy rival
As one team against a dummy rival. One player gives clues, the other guesses, and the absent enemy 'finds' one of its own agents every turn, so the pair are racing a clock.
Q 20Which major award did Codenames win in 2016?
Spiel des Jahres
Spiel des Jahres. The German critics' prize is the most prestigious in board games, and the jury praised a game so spell-binding that one round is often followed by a second, a third and a fourth.
Eight-ball pool. The original rulebook makes the comparison itself: a team wins by reaching the assassin once its own agents are found, and touching it early starts a sudden-death run in which one wrong guess loses.
Q 24What does the easier variant in Codenames: Disney Family Edition use for younger players?
A smaller four-by-four grid
A smaller four-by-four grid. The simpler set of key cards also leaves out the assassin altogether, and the cards show Disney and Pixar pictures on one side and words on the other.
Q 25Which comics publisher's superheroes have their own edition of Codenames?
Marvel
Marvel. The edition keeps the original rules but recasts the two teams as S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, with cards showing heroes such as Spider-Man and Doctor Strange and with Thanos as the assassin.
Q 26In Codenames, who decides whether a doubtful hint is allowed?
The rival clue-giver
The rival clue-giver. A player unsure about a hint asks the opponent quietly, out of the guessers' hearing, and whatever the opponent allows counts as valid.
Q 27Codenames: Duet players must find every agent before they run out of what?
Turns
Turns. A bank of nine timer tokens counts them down, one for each clue, and when the last is spent the pair get only a sudden-death round, with no more clues, to find whatever agents are left.
Q 28In Codenames: Duet, how do the partners use the key card?
Each sees one side of it
Each sees one side of it. The two faces differ, so each partner knows only some of the agents and gives clues for words the other cannot see marked.
Q 29In Codenames: Harry Potter, which group are the players trying to reveal?
Order of the Phoenix members
Order of the Phoenix members. Players hunt for all 15 of them against the clock, with a stack of Time-Turner tokens ticking off each clue until time runs out.
Q 30In Codenames: Harry Potter, which villains must the players avoid uncovering?
Death Eaters
Death Eaters. Stumbling on one costs everybody the game, because unlike the other licensed editions this one borrows Duet's rules and the whole table wins or loses together.