Word.ws English Dictionary

Mad Lib

Mad Lib noun: a humorously nonsensical story created from a template with blanks for certain elements. One participant supplies words to fill the blanks (e.g. "nose" where a body part is required), and the other reads the resulting story.

Noun

Mad Lib (plural Mad Libs)

  1. A humorously nonsensical story created from a template with blanks for certain elements. One participant supplies words to fill the blanks (e.g. "nose" where a body part is required), and the other reads the resulting story.
    • Here's a fun activity that combines a Mad Lib-like approach with math to create some very interesting (and sometimes hilarious) word problems.2002, Bob Krech, Meeting the Math Standards With Favorite Picture Books: Grades 2-4

Forms of Mad Lib

pluralMad Libs

Origin of Mad Lib

Blend of mad + ad lib; Mad Libs is the brand name for the packaged game.

Questions about Mad Lib

What does Mad Lib mean?
Mad Lib means a humorously nonsensical story created from a template with blanks for certain elements. One participant supplies words to fill the blanks (e.g. "nose" where a body part is required), and the other reads the resulting story.
What part of speech is Mad Lib?
Mad Lib is a noun.
What is the plural of Mad Lib?
The plural of Mad Lib is Mad Libs.

Words near Mad Lib in the dictionary

  1. mad honey
  2. mad itch
  3. Mad King George
  4. mad lad
  5. mad lads
  6. Mad Lib
  7. Mad Libs
  8. mad man
  9. Mad Max
  10. mad men
  11. mad minute

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Mad Lib (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Mad Lib.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mad_lib. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.