How to Play Elephant's Foot Umbrella Stand

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Elephant's Foot Umbrella Stand is a parlour guessing game for three or more players in which one person holds a secret phrase in mind and the rest of the group try to identify it through a series of yes-or-no questions. It requires no equipment whatsoever, travels well, and works equally well around a dinner table, on a long journey, or at a family gathering.

Its appeal lies in the slow-burning frustration of the questioners and the quiet satisfaction of the answerer watching the room tie itself in knots. Once a player has experienced the game from both sides, the logic of framing a good question becomes genuinely addictive.

A little history

The origins of Elephant's Foot Umbrella Stand as a distinct named game are unclear. It belongs to the broad family of yes-or-no deduction parlour games that were popular in Victorian and Edwardian drawing rooms across Britain, alongside games such as Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral. The specific phrase used as the secret answer is traditionally fixed as 'Elephant's Foot Umbrella Stand', chosen because it is long, compound, and just plausible enough to mislead questioners who might be close to a solution.

Setting up

1. Agree on who takes the first turn as the answerer. Any fair method works: youngest player, most recent birthday, or a quick round of odds and evens.
2. The answerer silently fixes the phrase 'Elephant's Foot Umbrella Stand' in their mind. They do not write it down or reveal it.
3. Agree on a question limit per round if desired (20 questions is a common house rule). Settle this before play begins.
4. All other players are questioners. No team captains or roles are needed beyond the single answerer.

How to play

1. The answerer announces they are ready. They do not name the secret phrase.
2. Questioners take turns clockwise, each asking one question that can be answered with 'yes', 'no', or 'I don't know'.
3. The answerer must respond truthfully. 'I don't know' is a legitimate response when the question is genuinely ambiguous or unanswerable.
4. A questioner may attempt to guess the full phrase instead of asking a question. This uses their turn. If wrong, play continues clockwise.
5. No questioner may ask the same question that has already been asked in the same round. If they do, the answerer simply says 'asked' and the turn passes.
6. Questioners may confer quietly between turns, but may not interrupt another player's question.
7. If a question-limit round limit was agreed and the phrase remains unguessed, the answerer reveals the phrase and wins that round. They may take another turn or pass the role left.
8. When a questioner correctly names the full phrase 'Elephant's Foot Umbrella Stand', they become the answerer for the next round.

Winning and scoring

There is no fixed scoring system in the standard game. The questioner who correctly guesses 'Elephant's Foot Umbrella Stand' wins that round and earns the privilege of being the answerer next. In longer sessions, players often keep a tally of how many rounds each person has won as questioner and how many rounds they successfully defended as answerer without being guessed. The answerer wins a round when questioners exhaust their question limit without a correct guess. First to three wins on either side is a tidy target for a full evening's play.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns partial guesses. If a questioner says 'Is it an elephant's foot?' without completing the phrase, the standard ruling is that this counts as a question, not a guess, and the answerer answers it truthfully ('yes'). Only naming the complete phrase 'Elephant's Foot Umbrella Stand' in full constitutes a winning guess. Agreeing this before play starts prevents most arguments.

A second frequent issue is the question 'Is it a real thing?' The phrase describes an object that genuinely existed as a Victorian household item, so the correct answer is 'yes'. The answerer should not mislead the group on this point. If a questioner asks 'Is it something in this room?' the answerer must answer honestly based on whether such a stand is actually present. Vague or trick questions that cannot be answered yes or no honestly should be met with 'I can't answer that' rather than an arbitrary response, and the questioner does not lose their turn.

How to win more often

• Start with broad category questions: is it a physical object, is it man-made, is it larger than a breadbox. These eliminate whole areas quickly.
• Listen carefully to every answer given to other questioners, not just your own turns. The pattern of yes and no answers across the group narrows the field faster than any single question.
• If you suspect you are close, resist guessing immediately. One or two more confirmatory questions costs only turns, but a wrong guess hands the advantage back to the answerer.
• As answerer, answer every question with a perfectly neutral expression and tone. Questioners read hesitation or suppressed smiles as strongly as the words yes or no.
• Avoid questions that are too clever or lateral in the early stages. Plain, binary, category-based questions yield more useful information per turn than lateral-thinking gambits.

Variations

Open Phrase

Instead of the fixed phrase, the answerer chooses any object, person, or place they like. This version is essentially a renamed Twenty Questions and plays well with younger children who find the fixed phrase too narrow once they know the answer. The group should agree in advance whether famous people and fictional characters are allowed.

Team Play

Divide the group into two teams. One member of Team A is the answerer; Team B questions collectively, nominating one spokesperson per turn. Teams alternate the answerer role each round. The team that guesses correctly in the fewest questions over a fixed number of rounds wins. This variant works well with larger groups of eight or more.

Strict Twenty Questions

Set a hard limit of exactly twenty questions per round with no exceptions. If the phrase is not guessed by question twenty, the answerer scores a point and keeps the role. First answerer to three points or first questioner to guess correctly three times wins the session. The fixed limit sharpens questioning discipline considerably.

Written Questions

Each questioner writes their question on a slip of paper before passing it to the answerer. The answerer reads it silently and answers aloud. This slows the pace but removes the social pressure of questioning in front of the group, which suits quieter players and mixed-age gatherings where some participants feel put on the spot.

Elephant's Foot Umbrella Stand: frequently asked questions