Want to instantly boost engagement in your next presentation? Here's the thing: word clouds are your secret weapon. But knowing how to use them effectively? That's where most people get stuck.
🎯 What You'll Learn
- How to create engaging word clouds that are simple but effective
- 101 proven word cloud examples for any situation
- Expert tips to maximise participation and engagement
- Best practices for different settings (work, education, events)
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Table of Contents
Try it Out!
Put these word cloud examples into action. Register for free and see how our free interactive word cloud works 👇
Quick Facts About Word Clouds
| Alternative names for word clouds | Tag clouds, word collages, word bubbles, word clusters |
| Creation limit | Unlimited with AhaSlides |
How Does a Live Word Cloud Work?
A live word cloud is like a real-time visual conversation. As participants submit their responses, the most popular words grow larger, creating a dynamic visualisation of group thinking.
With most live word cloud software, all you have to do is write the question and choose the settings for your cloud. Then, share the unique URL code of the word cloud with your audience, who type it into their phone's browser.
After this, they can read your question and input their own word to the cloud 👇
50 Ice Breaker Word Cloud Examples
Climbers break the ice with pickaxes, facilitators break the ice with word clouds.
The following word cloud examples and ideas offer different ways for employees and students to connect, catch up remotely, motivate each other and solve teambuilding riddles together.
10 Conversation-Starting Questions
- What TV show is criminally overrated?
- What's the most controversial food combination?
- What's your go-to comfort food?
- Name one thing that should be illegal but isn't
- What's the most useless talent you have?
- What's the worst advice you've ever received?
- What's one thing you'd ban from meetings forever?
- What's the most overpriced thing people regularly buy?
- What skill becomes useless in a zombie apocalypse?
- What's one thing you believed for way too long?
10 Hilariously Controversial Questions
- What TV series is disgustingly overrated?
- What's your favourite swear word?
- What is the worst pizza topping?
- What's the most useless Marvel superhero?
- What's the sexiest accent?
- What's the best cutlery to use for eating rice?
- What's the largest acceptable age gap when dating?
- What's the cleanest pet to own?
- What's the worst singing competition series?
- What's the most annoying emoji?
10 Remote Team Catch-up Questions
- How are you feeling?
- What is your biggest hurdle with working remotely?
- What communication channels do you prefer?
- What Netflix series have you been watching?
- If you weren't at home, where would you be?
- What's your favourite work-from-home item of clothing?
- How many minutes before work starts do you get out of bed?
- What's a must-have item in your remote office (not your laptop)?
- How do you relax during lunch?
- What have you omitted from your morning routine since going remote?
10 Motivating Questions for Students and Employees
- Who nailed their work this week?
- Who's been your main motivator this week?
- Who made you laugh the most this week?
- Who have you spoken with the most outside of work/school?
- Who's got your vote for employee/student of the month?
- If you had a super tight deadline, who would you turn to for help?
- Who do you think is next in line for my job?
- Who's the best at dealing with difficult customers/problems?
- Who's the best at dealing with tech issues?
- Who's your unsung hero?
10 Team Riddles Ideas
- What has to be broken before you can use it? Egg
- What has branches but no trunk, roots or leaves? Bank
- What becomes bigger the more you remove from it? Hole
- Where does today come before yesterday? Dictionary
- What kind of band never plays music? Rubber
- What building has the most stories? Library
- If two’s a company, and three’s a crowd, what are four and five? Nine
- What begins with an “e” and only contains one letter? Envelope
- What five-letter word has one left when two are removed? Stone
- What can fill a room but take up no space? Light (or air)
🧊 Want more icebreaker games to play with your team? Check them out!
40 School Word Cloud Examples
Whether you're getting to know a new class or letting your students have their say, these word cloud activities for your classroom can illustrate opinions and ignite discussion whenever it's needed.
10 Questions about Your Students
- What's your favourite food?
- What's your favourite genre of movie?
- What's your favourite subject?
- What's your least favourite subject?
- What attributes make the perfect teacher?
- What software do you use the most in your learning?
- Give me 3 words to describe yourself.
- What's your main hobby outside of school?
- Where's your dream field trip?
- Which friend do you rely on the most in class?
10 End-of-lesson Review Questions
- What did we learn about today?
- What's the most interesting topic from today?
- What topic did you find difficult today?
- What would you like to review next lesson?
- Give me one of the keywords from this lesson.
- How did you find the pace of this lesson?
- Which activity did you like the most today?
- How much did you enjoy today's lesson? Give me a number from 1 - 10.
- What would you like to learn about the next lesson?
- How included did you feel in class today?
10 Virtual Learning Review Questions
- How do you find learning online?
- What's the best thing about learning online?
- What's the worst thing about learning online?
- In which room is your computer?
- Do you like your at-home learning environment?
- In your opinion, the perfect online lesson is how many minutes long?
- How do you relax in between your online lessons?
- What's your favourite software that we use in online lessons?
- How many times do you go outside your house in a day?
- How much do you miss sitting with your classmates?
10 Book Club Questions
Note: Questions 77 - 80 are for asking about a specific book in a book club.
- What's your favourite genre of book?
- What's your favourite book or series?
- Who's your favourite author?
- Who's your favourite book character of all time?
- Which book would you love to see made into a movie?
- Who would be the actor to play your favourite character in a movie?
- What word would you use to describe the main villain of this book?
- If you were in this book, which character would you be?
- Give me a keyword from this book.
- What word would you use to describe the main villain of this book?
🏫 Here are some other great questions to ask your students.
21 Pointless Word Cloud Examples
Explainer: In Pointless, the aim is to get the most obscure correct answer possible. Ask word cloud questions, and then delete the most popular answers one by one. The winner(s) is whoever submitted a correct answer that no one else submitted 👇
Give me the name of the most obscure...
- ... country beginning with 'B'.
- ... Harry Potter character.
- ... manager of the England national football team.
- ... Roman emperor.
- ... war in the 20th century.
- ... album by The Beatles.
- ... city with a population of over 15 million.
- ... fruit with 5 letters in it.
- ... a bird that can't fly.
- ... type of nut.
- ... impressionist painter.
- ... method for cooking an egg.
- ... state in America.
- ... noble gas.
- ... animal beginning with 'M'.
- ... character on Friends.
- ... English word with 7 syllables or more.
- ... generation 1 Pokémon.
- ... Pope in the 21st century.
- ... member of the English royal family.
- ... luxury car company.
Best Practices for Word Cloud Success
If the word cloud examples and ideas above have inspired you to create your own, here are a few quick guidelines to get the most out of your word cloud session.
- Avoid yes/no - Make sure your questions are open-ended. A word cloud with just 'yes' and 'no' responses is missing the point of a word cloud (it's better to use a multiple choice slide for yes / no questions.
- More word cloud - discover the best collaborative word cloud tools that can earn you total engagement, wherever you need it. Let’s dive in!
- Keep it short - Phrase your question in a way that encourages just one or two-word responses. Not only do short answers look better in a word cloud, but they also lessen the chance that someone will write the same thing in a different way.
- Ask for opinions, not answers - Unless you're running something like this live word cloud example, it's always best to use this tool for gathering opinions, rather than assessing knowledge of a certain topic. If you're looking to assess knowledge, then a live quiz is the way to go!
Ready to Create Your First Word Cloud?
Transform your next presentation with interactive word clouds. Here's what to do next:
- Explore our template library
- Grab a free word cloud template or create from scratch
- Create your first engaging visualisation
Remember: The key to successful word clouds isn't just creating them - it's knowing how to use them strategically to spark meaningful engagement.
Want more presentation tips? Check out our guides on:
- Adding word clouds to PowerPoint
- Creating spinner wheels for presentations
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best use of word cloud?
This tool helps with data visualisation, text analysis, content creation, presentation and reports, SEO and keyword analysis for data exploration.
Can Microsoft Word generate a word cloud?
Microsoft Word does not have a built-in feature to directly generate word clouds. However, there are various ways to create word clouds using third-party tools or by importing text into other software, like using online word cloud generators, add-ins or text analysis tools!
