Sea words for Alias — beach, waves, boats

Waves, shells, boats and a suntan. For anyone already counting the days to a holiday by the sea.

A set about the sea from every side: the beach and the sand, waves and tides, boats and sailing ships, the world under water and everything people bring home from a holiday. The first level is a day on the beach, the third is a talk with a captain and a diver.

Who this set is for

Almost everyone has seen the sea, even if only once as a child, so shell, sand and lifeguard are explained with one picture. The medium level asks for a little time in boats and behind a snorkel mask, and the hard one — fathom, buoyancy, galley — is for whoever has sailed or dived with a tank.

Who this set is for

A group going on holiday together or just back from one: beach memories explain words faster than any definition. The easy level suits children, the medium one a mixed table, and the hard one wants someone who has been out under sail. It plays beautifully on the beach itself, on a towel between swims.

Shell

Works: “you hold it to your ear to hear the sea.” One gesture every child has made. Does not work: “the hard covering of a sea creature” — the room will say crab, turtle and oyster first.

Anchor

Works: “the heavy iron thing on a chain that you drop over the side so the boat does not drift away.” Does not work: “a device for securing a vessel” — it sounds like a manual, and the room tries rope, mooring and harbour. Explain sea objects through action: what people do with them and why.

Tide

Works: “you left your towel near the water, and a few hours later it was soaked — the sea had come up.” Does not work: “the periodic rise and fall of sea level” — that is a geography lesson, and the room says wave, storm and current. Explain natural things through what happened to you on the beach.

Where groups go wrong

The first trap is mixing up the sea with a river or a pool: “water you swim in” could be anything. Add salt, waves and the horizon. The second is sailors’ language: bow, stern and deck mean their own thing on board, and players explain them as land words. Explain through the ship itself: where the place is and what happens there. The third is the underwater world: “a sort of fish” is a mackerel, a stingray and a shark. Name the shape, the colour or the danger: “flat as a rug with a long tail” is a stingray.

Explain beach words through a holiday memory: “you hold it to your ear and hear the sea” is a shell.
Explain parts of a ship through the ship itself: where it is and what happens there, not what it resembles on land.
Tell sea creatures apart by a feature — shape, colour, danger — not “a kind of fish”.

Easy

Familiar words that land on the first clue. For warming up, for kids and for mixed groups.

sea, beach, sand, wave, water, sun, shore, island, boat, ship, yacht, sail, oar, anchor, lighthouse, fish, shark, dolphin, whale, crab, jellyfish, octopus, shell, pebble, turtle, seagull, starfish, seaweed, towel, umbrella, swimsuit, trunks, sunglasses, hat, suncream, tan, holiday, suitcase, hotel, pier, lifeguard, lilo, ball, spade, bucket, sandcastle, ice-cream, pirate, treasure, map, captain, sailor, fisherman, rod, net, wind, storm, cloud, horizon, sunset, bottle, submarine, swimming, diving, splash, foam, salt, wet, deep, bottom, shallow, diver, flippers, mask, snorkel, seal, penguin, shrimp, sandal, bikini, postcard, kite, surfboard, rock, cliff, cave, ferry, canoe, raft, paddle, mermaid, seahorse, palm, coconut, picnic, swim, goggles, lobster, lifebelt, sunny

Medium

Takes a few sentences and some imagination. The default setting for an ordinary evening.

deckchair, promenade, jetty, quay, breakwater, dune, lagoon, bay, cove, cape, reef, coral, tide, current, breeze, buoy, lifejacket, sunburn, shade, awning, surfing, surfer, wetsuit, scuba, harbour, liner, cruise, cabin, deck, mast, rudder, helm, compass, binoculars, gangway, porthole, hull, stern, bow, lifeboat, kayak, catamaran, dinghy, crew, navigator, mussel, oyster, squid, stingray, walrus, pelican, albatross, cormorant, orca, moray, barracuda, mackerel, sardine, clam, cockle, whelk, limpet, crayfish, souvenir, magnet, resort, guesthouse, excursion, hammock, cocktail, pedalo, rockpool, seafront, boardwalk, sunbed, windbreak, candyfloss, arcade, seasickness, sunstroke, whirlpool, spray, regatta, jet-ski, aquarium, marina, port, coastline, tuna, herring, cod, anchovy, deckhand, skipper, porpoise, flounder, lido, seaside, rowing, speedboat

Hard

Rare or abstract words. More failed rounds, and more laughing at them.

fairway, decompression, navigation, archipelago, atoll, seabed, breaker, tsunami, riptide, undertow, swell, maelstrom, knot, fathom, latitude, longitude, sextant, chronometer, barometer, sonar, submersible, buoyancy, freediving, buccaneer, privateer, frigate, schooner, galleon, rigging, keel, waterline, bowsprit, mooring, bollard, berth, shipyard, galley, bunk, lookout, bilge, starboard, leeward, windward, doldrums, monsoon, estuary, fjord, inlet, isthmus, peninsula, headland, bioluminescence, plankton, anemone, nautilus, cuttlefish, sponge, kelp, krill, oceanography, tugboat, tanker, trawler, kitesurfing, ultraviolet, flotsam, jetsam, beachcomber, castaway, shipwreck, mutiny, smuggler, coastguard, ebb, salinity, squall, brigantine, seafaring, pilotage, drift, ballast, periscope, torpedo, displacement, circumnavigation, aquanaut, hydrography, capsize, tack, mangrove, aquaculture, spawning, caisson, slipway, lock, groyne, spit, sandbank, shoal, halyard