Figurative Language Bingo Card Generator
Figurative Language bingo cards in seconds: 41 ready-made entries (Swims like a fish, Her voice is music and The stars winked among them), 24 on each 5x5 card with a free center, up to 30 unique cards free. With 30 players the first line usually comes after about 12 calls, roughly 2 minutes at 10 seconds a call.
| B | I | N | G | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|
A sea of faces | Cold as ice | Six slippery seals | Quiet as a mouse | The stars winked |
Classroom was a zoo | Busy as a bee | Light as a feather | Whoosh | Big brown bear |
Silly snakes slither | I could eat a horse | FREE | Eyes like stars | The wind howled |
Bag weighs a ton | A million questions | Her voice is music | The sun smiled | Waited forever |
Boom | Brave as a lion | Thunder grumbled | Waves whispered | Swims like a fish |
Free: up to 30 different cards per set. Pro: up to 1,000.
Free sets stop at 30 different cards. Your 30 cards are ready to print or download now.
Pro ($19 one-time) opens soon: up to 1,000 different cards per set and 2 or 4 cards on a PDF page. No payment is taken now.
Edit words (41)
Cards update as you type. Long entries shrink to fit their square; a very long single word is split over two lines with a hyphen (up to 40 characters each). The PDF uses a built-in font: emoji and non-Latin scripts print best with Print cards.
Caller sheet
Every call in a shuffled order. Tick each one as you read it out; the same share link always gives the same order.
Updated
About Figurative Language bingo
Figurative Language Bingo uses short examples instead of definitions: similes like “Sly as a fox”, metaphors like “A blanket of snow”, personification like “Thunder grumbled”, hyperbole like “I could eat a horse”, sound words like “Sizzle”, alliteration like “Six slippery seals” and oxymorons like “Jumbo shrimp”. It suits upper-elementary and middle-school reading lessons and advanced ESL learners.
This Figurative Language list is 41 entries long and a 5x5 card with a free center takes 24, which leaves 17 off each card. That is why one entry (Brave as a lion, say) appears on about 18 of 30 cards: card 1, for instance, has no Sly as a fox or Sleeps like a log.
Play it like classic bingo: one person reads the 41 entries in the shuffled order of the caller sheet, everyone marks matching squares, and a full row, column or diagonal wins.
All 41 Figurative Language bingo words
Every entry from A blanket of snow to Whoosh, grouped by first letter. Edit them in the generator above: drop Her voice is music if it does not suit your group, or add your own.
- A: A blanket of snow, A million questions, A sea of faces
- B: Bag weighs a ton, Big brown bear, Boom, Brave as a lion, Busy as a bee, Buzz
- C: Classroom was a zoo, Cold as ice, Crash
- D: Deafening silence
- E: Eyes like stars
- H: Heart of stone, Her voice is music, Hiss
- I: I could eat a horse
- J: Jumbo shrimp
- L: Leaves danced, Light as a feather
- O: Old news
- P: Pretty ugly
- Q: Quiet as a mouse
- S: Seriously funny, Silly snakes slither, Six slippery seals, Sizzle, Sleeps like a log, Sly as a fox, Swims like a fish
- T: The car coughed, The stars winked, The sun smiled, The wind howled, Thunder grumbled, Time is a thief, Tons of homework
- W: Waited forever, Waves whispered, Whoosh
Figurative Language bingo at a glance
| Entries | 41 words and phrases |
|---|---|
| Card | 5x5 card with a free center: 24 of the 41 |
| How it is played | A caller reads the shuffled caller sheet |
| Different cards possible | about 9.41 × 10³⁴ (order matters) |
| Different selections | 151,584,480,450 sets of 24 entries |
| Shortest entry | Boom (4 characters) |
| Longest entry | Silly snakes slither (20 characters) |
| Multi-word entries | 35 of 41, such as Busy as a bee and Quiet as a mouse |
| Good for | Classrooms, teens and ESL lessons |
| Category | Language arts & ESL (61 themes) |
How long Figurative Language bingo lasts
150 shuffled call orders, played on the first 60 cards of this set. With 30 players the first line comes after a median 12 calls (about 2 minutes at one call every 10 seconds); the first blackout needs 38 calls (about 6 minutes).
| Players | First line | Line, 80% range | Blackout | Blackout, 80% range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 players | 15 calls | 11-18 | 39 calls | 37-40 |
| 30 players | 12 calls | 9-15 | 38 calls | 36-39 |
| 60 players | 10 calls | 8-13 | 37 calls | 35-38 |
| 1 card (exact average) | - | - | 40.3 calls | of 41 |
How to host Figurative Language bingo
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Print the Figurative Language cards
Give each player one card; a free set prints up to 30, no two alike. Card 1 above starts with A sea of faces, Cold as ice, Six slippery seals, Quiet as a mouse and The stars winked.
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Print the caller sheet
All 41 entries appear on it in shuffled order, opening with Sizzle, The wind howled, Classroom was a zoo, The stars winked and Cold as ice; tick each one as you read it out.
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Call the device instead of the example, such as personification, and let players mark one matching square like “The stars winked” or “Waves whispered”.
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After each call ask what the phrase really means; “Heart of stone” and “Time is a thief” open good discussions about metaphor.
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Separate simile from metaphor on the board as squares come up, noting that “Swims like a fish” uses like while “Heart of stone” does not.
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Call until someone shouts bingo
With 30 cards, expect the first line near call 12 (Six slippery seals in this set's order) and a blackout near call 38; check the winner's squares against your ticked list.
Figurative Language bingo variations
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Figurative Language variation
Device detectives: players mark a called square only if they can name its device correctly. A wrong label, such as calling “Waited forever” a simile instead of hyperbole, means the square stays open until it is called again.
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Blackout round
Card 1 needs all 24 squares, A sea of faces to Swims like a fish; on average one card fills after 40.3 of the 41 calls (98% of the deck).
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Quick 4x4 round
A 4x4 card needs 16 of the 41 entries and no free space; one card is full after about 39.5 calls instead of 40.3.
First 15 calls of this Figurative Language set
Seed "figurative-language" gives this order, the same one the caller sheet prints. With these calls, card 10 of the first 30 completes the diagonal from the top right (Boom, Pretty ugly, Cold as ice and Classroom was a zoo) on call 10, and card 1 is the first full card on call 38.
| Call | Entry | Cards marked (of 30) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sizzle | 13 of 30 |
| 2 | The wind howled | 16 of 30 |
| 3 | Classroom was a zoo | 15 of 30 |
| 4 | The stars winked | 23 of 30 |
| 5 | Cold as ice | 19 of 30 |
| 6 | Pretty ugly | 15 of 30 |
| 7 | A sea of faces | 21 of 30 |
| 8 | Light as a feather | 19 of 30 |
| 9 | I could eat a horse | 16 of 30 |
| 10 | Boom | 20 of 30 |
| 11 | Quiet as a mouse | 19 of 30 |
| 12 | Six slippery seals | 18 of 30 |
| 13 | Big brown bear | 14 of 30 |
| 14 | Eyes like stars | 18 of 30 |
| 15 | A million questions | 21 of 30 |
Themes like Figurative Language bingo
Ranked by category, occasion and audience; none of them repeats an entry from this list, so pasting two into the Edit words box gives a longer game.
Closest word lists
Frequently asked questions
How many words are on the Figurative Language bingo list?
41, from A blanket of snow to Whoosh. A 5x5 card with a free center uses 24 of them, so each card leaves out 17. The shortest entry is Boom (4 characters) and the longest is Silly snakes slither (20).
Are all Figurative Language bingo cards the same?
No. Card 1 and card 2 of this set share 14 of their 24 squares, and every card is checked so none of the 30 in a free set repeats. About 9.41 × 10³⁴ different arrangements are possible from the 41 entries (151,584,480,450 different selections of 24).
How many Figurative Language bingo cards per person?
One card each is standard. In 150 simulated games of this list, 30 players on one card each got a first line after a median 12 calls; with two cards each (60 in play) it came after 10, and 10 single cards took 15. Two cards suit adults who want a faster game; young children do best with one. A free set of 30 covers 15 players on two cards each.
How long does Figurative Language bingo take?
A Figurative Language game with 30 players usually reaches its first line after 12 calls (9-15 in 80% of simulated games), about 2 minutes at one call every 10 seconds. A blackout takes about 38; with 10 players the first line needs about 15.
Can I print Figurative Language bingo cards for free?
Yes, up to 30 unique cards per set at no cost and without an account. Pick how many you need, then use Print cards or Download PDF: each card gets its own page with the title “Figurative Language Bingo” on top, and the caller sheet lists all 41 entries in this set's shuffled order.
How do I make my own Figurative Language bingo cards?
Start from this list: the 41 entries are already in the generator, so delete The stars winked or any other entry, type your own one per line and the cards update as you type. Keep at least 24 entries for 5x5 cards (16 for 4x4); the share link reprints exactly the same set.
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