Bingo card generator

How many words do you need?

Each card needs as many different words as it has squares to fill: 24 for a 5×5 card with a free space, 16 for 4×4 and 8 for 3×3 with a free space. That is the minimum. With exactly that many, every card holds the same words in a different order, which is fine for "first to get a line" games but means everyone finishes a blackout game on the same call. A longer list makes each card a different mix. This table shows how many different sets of words a 5×5 card with a free space can hold for each list length, and how much of the list each card uses.

With 30 words, each card holds 80% of the list and there are 593,775 different combinations: plenty for 30 or 100 cards with no two alike. Smaller cards need fewer words: 12 words make 495different 3×3 cards with a free space (20 words make 125,970), and 20 words make 4,845 different 4×4 cards (735,471 with 24 words). As a rule of thumb, a list about one and a half times the number of squares keeps the game moving without long stretches where nobody can mark anything.

Ideas for your game

Classroom vocabulary bingo

Put this week's vocabulary words on the cards and read out the definitions, not the words: students have to work out the word before they can mark it. The same trick works for sight words, states and capitals, the periodic table (call the name, mark the symbol) or math facts (call "7 × 8", mark 56). For a quick review game, a 4×4 card keeps it to ten or fifteen minutes. Print the cards 2 to a page and slip them into sheet protectors so students can reuse them with dry-erase markers.

Baby showers, bridal showers and parties

For gift bingo, leave the list empty and print blank cards: guests write in the gifts they expect, then mark them as the presents are opened. For a ready-made game, fill the cards with baby or wedding words, holiday words for a seasonal party, or office in-jokes for a team event. A 5×5 card with a title in a matching color, 2 to a page, is a good size for adults.

How to call a game

Hand out one card per player along with markers, chips or a pen. Read the calling list from the top of the first column down, then the next column, and tick each box as you go. Players mark the words they have; the free space is already marked. The first player to complete a row, a column or a diagonal shouts "Bingo!" and reads out their line, which you check against the ticks. Other patterns keep later rounds fresh: four corners, a big X, the outside frame, or blackout, where every square must be covered. The card number under each card helps you keep track of who is playing which card.

The 75-ball format

American bingo uses 75 numbers and a 5×5 card with B-I-N-G-O over the columns. Each column draws from its own 15 numbers: B 1–15, I 16–30, N 31–45, G 46–60 and O 61–75. The N column has four numbers plus the free space. Counting the order of the numbers in each column, there are 552,446,474,061,128,648,601,600,000 different possible cards. Calls are given as the letter and number, such as "G-52", so players know which column to look in. The 90-ball game played in the UK uses a different ticket of 3 rows and 9 columns, which this tool doesn't make.

More printables for the classroom: graph paper, a printable calendar and the multiplication chart. To choose who goes first, try the random name picker, or split the class with the team generator.