How many categories are in a round?

A standard Scattergories round uses 12 categories. Our generator shows 12 categories per round, matching the original game card format.

How do I use this for remote play?

Share your screen or open the generator on a TV. Everyone sees the same letter and categories. Use the built-in timer, and when it goes off, each player reads their answers aloud. Duplicate answers cancel out — only unique answers score a point.

Can I print the category list?

Yes — click the Print button for a clean card layout with the letter and 12 numbered blank lines, ready to write answers on.

What is the timer for?

The official game gives players 3 minutes per round. Our timer defaults to 3 minutes with a beep at 0. You can also choose 1, 2, or 5 minutes for faster or more relaxed games.

Scattergories Generator — Roll a Letter, Get 12 Categories

Q: What letters are excluded and why?

The official Scattergories die excludes Q, U, V, X, Y, and Z because very few common words or category answers begin with those letters, making gameplay frustratingly difficult. Our generator excludes the same six letters by default, though you can toggle 'use all 26 letters' for a harder challenge.

More word game generators

Free tools for game night

Rhyming Dictionary

Find perfect rhymes for any word, grouped by syllable count. Filter by part of speech. Great for poetry and songwriting.

Scrabble Word Finder

Find valid Scrabble words from your letters. Filter by length and see point values.

Random Quote Generator

Random quotes with filters for topic, author, tone, length, favorites, and image cards.

Random Wordle Generator

Random 5-letter words for Wordle. Filter by difficulty and letter.

Wordle Helper

Entropy-ranked solver — enter your clues and get the single best next guess, not just a filtered list.

Best Wordle Starting Words

Top 100 openers ranked by Shannon entropy — original analysis, 10,000-game benchmark, downloadable data.

Advertisement · 336×280

Grammarly — write with confidence

Instantly improve grammar, spelling, clarity, and tone. Works everywhere you write online.

Try Grammarly free

How to use the Scattergories generator

Scattergories is a category-based word game where every answer must begin with the same letter and be one of the accepted words for a given category. In addition, all answers with the same letter must receive no points.

Roll a letter. A letter will be chosen for you by clicking the "Roll" button for that letter. The same letter is chosen from the pool of 20 letters (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, W). Q, U, V, X, Y, and Z are excluded because very few words start with these letters.
Select the categories for the game — 12 categories will appear to the right of the letter selection area. You can always click "New list" to select a new group of categories to play with.
Set the timer to 3 minutes (standard for this game). Players then write one answer per category for the letter that was rolled.
Score — All answers read out by all players for each category are marked on a score sheet by the game moderator. An answer scoring zero is one that another player wrote down for the same category. An answer by a player scoring 1 point is one that no other player wrote down for the same category. Both words of alliterative answers score 2 points.

Playing online or remotely

This game can be played online, and you can share your screen to make it easy for everyone to play from their one view of the generator's output on the shared screen. The generator takes care of the random letter, new categories, and timer while you focus on your gameplay. Looking for more party games? Try our Charades Generator or Pictionary Word Generator.

Frequently asked questions

What letters are excluded and why?

The 6 letters Q, U, V, X, Y, and Z are by default excluded because very few words start with these letters. Toggle "Use all 26 letters" to play the harder version of the game.

How many categories are in a Scattergories round?

Each round consists of 12 categories for a theme. Here you can start a new list of categories for the same theme.

Can I use this for remote play?

Yes. Share your screen, and when time is up, have everyone read out the answers on a call with you.

How do I print a Scattergories card?

Click "Print card" to produce a clean card showing a letter and 12 lines of 12 numbered blank spaces.

What does the category theme filter do?

It selects categories from one of the following pools of words: Classic, Kids, Adults, Holiday, Food, Pop Culture, Hard. "All themes" mixes up all of the above.

What is Play Mode?

Play Mode (for TV and group play) increases the size of the letters and the number of categories to fill the screen.

Who uses the Scattergories generator

Game night hosts

This is a no-setup alternative to searching for a board game. Just open the tab, roll a letter, and play the game.

Teachers

Use Scattergories for a fun vocabulary and quick-thinking warm-up activity that the whole class can play together.

Remote teams

Share your screen on Zoom or Discord and run a virtual happy hour or icebreaker in minutes.

Families

A screen-time activity everyone from kids to grandparents can play at the same time.

Want a clue-giving game instead? Try the Catchphrase Generator — same game-night energy, different mechanic.