List of categories

Over the years, Wheel of Fortune has used a great variety of categories for its puzzles. According to the rule sheet from the first board game in 1975, the first eight categories were Event, Fictional Character, Landmark, Person, Phrase, Place, Thing and Title; an old version of the show's website said that Wheel began with just six. Not counting plural forms, there are currently 39, and two others that are possibly retired.

Initially, it was not uncommon for the same category (usually Thing or Phrase) to appear as many as four times in a single game, including at least one daytime game in 1984 where only Phrase was used. Although the long-standing practice of introducing at least one category per season began in 1988, repeated categories in the main game were still relatively normal until around 1994. Since then, almost all repeats have been the result of the Bonus Round being in the same category as a main game puzzle, if at all.

Current Categories

 * Around the House: Introduced on September 6, 1998 as a more specific subset of Thing. For its first season of use, its category strip had a drawing of a house.
 * Before & After: Introduced on February 27, 1989. This category consists of two phrases, names, etc., combined by a word that ends the first and starts the second (i.e., WHEEL OF FORTUNE COOKIE, which combines "Wheel of Fortune" and "fortune cookie").
 * College Life: Introduced on October 24, 2005 and used only during College Weeks, resulting in extremely sporadic usage.
 * Event(s): Often includes an -ING ending, much like What Are You Doing?, which is essentially a subset of this category. Some puzzles in the early 1990s stretched the definition, most notably UNDER HOUSE ARREST and SLIPPED ON A BANANA PEEL which are more logically Phrase instead of Event (although SLIPPING ON A BANANA PEEL would fit). It was also stretched to its limits in the early 2000s (see What Are You Doing?, below). Of the categories with plural forms, Events and Occupations (see below) are likely the least-used.
 * Family: Introduced during the week of December 18, 1989 (Family Week), and known to have been used on at least the 22nd. The puzzle answer is the name of two or more famous people who are closely related, or rarely, the name of a well-known family (e.g. THE NEVILLE BROTHERS).
 * Fictional Character(s): A self-explanatory category, believed to be one of the original six.
 * Fictional Family: Introduced on November 30, 2007 as a subset of the above two. Pat Sajak joked on October 27, 2011 that it had been used just eight times, only to be told after the Bonus Round that he was right.
 * Fictional Place: Known to have been used since at least May 30, 1995. Very rarely used, with only one known instance of it being used in the Bonus Round (November 25, 2008).
 * Fun & Games: Introduced on September 6, 2004. It is the first known category to have been introduced in a Toss-Up.
 * Food & Drink: Introduced on September 10, 2003 as On the Menu, it was renamed on September 11, 2006 (the Season 24 premiere) most likely to be all-inclusive for foods and drinks that would not necessarily be found on a restaurant menu. Between Seasons 21 and 24, some food-and-drink puzzles were categorized as Thing or Around the House, or shoehorned into On the Menu.
 * Headline: Apparently introduced in Season 14, and very rarely used. Until the late 1990s, its category strip had a drawing of a rolled-up newspaper.
 * Husband & Wife: Introduced in Season 7, sometime after the first six episodes and definitely by January 10, 1990. Initially, it spelled out the word AND even though at least one puzzle in a category other than Same Name had used an ampersand by this point.
 * In the Kitchen: Introduced on September 27, 2005 as a subset of Around the House. Used in the Bonus Round only six times, between January 30, 2006 and September 26, 2007. Very rarely used in the main game since Season 27.
 * Landmark: Despite being an original category, it is used rarely enough that Pat often mentions how rarely it is used.
 * Living Thing(s): Apparently introduced in Season 18. The category includes animals, plants, etc.
 * Movie Quote and TV Quote: Subsets of Quotation. Debuted on September 29 and October 3, 2011, respectively, although no mention was made on either episode of these being new categories.
 * Occupation(s): Known to have been used since at least March 27, 1979.
 * On the Map: Introduced on April 14, 1999 as a more specific subset of Place.
 * Person and People: Until the introduction of Proper Name in Season 14, proper names of famous people were included in this category. Previously, the hosts would remind contestants that "Person/People does not always mean proper name(s)", something that Pat often forgot to do.
 * Phrase
 * Place(s): Until the introduction of On the Map in Season 17, specific geographical locations were included in this category.
 * Proper Name(s): Introduced on September 6, 1996. Proper Name may also refer to the name of a sports team, college, or far more rarely, the name of a business.
 * Quotation: Known to have been used since at least March 15, 1978. From 1992-96, contestants were often asked to provide the source of the quotation for a $1,000 bonus; the question was originally signaled by four low-pitched beeps and asked by Charlie O'Donnell, but by September 1995 Pat asked the question and the "$3,000 bonus" (see below) chimes were used. By April 1996, the extra question was the basis of a new category called Who Said It?, which is listed below. Unusually for an "early" category, there are only two known instances of Quotation in the Bonus Round (October 1987 and September 1988, both nighttime).
 * Rhyme Time: Introduced in September 1998. Answers in this category are a phrase that has a rhyme in it, or far less commonly, a single word that has rhyming syllables (i.e., HODGEPODGE). Has only five known uses in the Bonus Round.
 * Same Letter: Introduced on September 15, 2010, used for alliterative answers. At least three Same Letter answers have had ampersands in them.
 * Same Name: Introduced on September 6, 1988. This puzzle includes two names, phrases, etc. that end in the same word (i.e., ARETHA & BENJAMIN FRANKLIN or SEWING & SLOT MACHINE). Between about 1993 and 1996, it sometimes used three "names" (i.e., SEWING SLOT & VENDING MACHINE). For its first season of use, AND was spelled out in the puzzle, but after nearly every contestant called N-D-A first, the word was replaced with an ampersand. Starting in the late 2000s, Same Name puzzles sporadically reverted to spelling AND. There does not seem to be a specific pattern as to when the category uses AND versus an ampersand.
 * Show Biz: Introduced in Season 14 and, until the late 1990s, its category strip included a drawing of two crossed spotlight beams. During the week of November 12, 2007, the category was temporarily renamed for People magazine and used that magazine's logo in the category strip.
 * Song/Artist: (i.e., LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING BY TIM MCGRAW). Originally Artist/Song, and known to have been used since at least April 26, 1993. The Song/Artist form has been around since at least April 30, 1996, although the show alternated between the two until December 30, 2008 before settling on Song/Artist.
 * Song Lyrics: Apparently introduced in Season 19, and known to have been used in the Bonus Round only twice: November 17, 2004 and December 22, 2006.
 * Star/Role: The puzzle lists an actor/actress and a character they are known for portraying (i.e., BILL COSBY AS CLIFF HUXTABLE). First used on July 17, 1989 (Bob Goen's first daytime episode) as Person/Fictional Character, it changed to Star & Role on October 16 of that year. The ampersand remained through at least December 27, 1996, although it is not known when the slash was introduced.
 * Thing(s): Possibly the category that has been split up the most. Around the House, Food & Drink, In the Kitchen, and Living Thing are all unarguable subsets of Thing, although some puzzles that might originally have been called Thing(s) could now fit in other categories as well.
 * Title(s): Three specific subsets (Movie Title, Song Title, and TV Title) were introduced in Season 23 ("TV" on September 12, "Movie" on September 19, "Song" on October 13). As a result, Title itself has become increasingly sporadic: strangely, the Bonus Round has not used Title since May 10, 2005 and has never used any of its subsets. On rare occasions, TV Title refers to the name of a network instead of a TV show.
 * Title/Author: (i.e., THE PEARL BY JOHN STEINBECK) Apparently introduced in Season 9. Similarly to Song/Artist, this was sometimes inverted as Author/Title from at least March 4, 1996 through February 25, 2008; since then, only Title/Author has been used.
 * What Are You Doing?: Introduced on September 12, 2007. This category guarantees that an -ING ending will be somewhere in the answer, although three puzzles in mid-Season 26 broke that rule. The category was created most likely to prevent oddities; several Event puzzles in the mid-2000s stretched the definition, such as SINGING OFF-KEY.
 * What's That Song?: Introduced on September 16, 2010, it was only used four times in Season 28. The puzzle is a song lyric, and a $3,000 bonus (see below) is awarded for identifying the song's title.

Possibly-Retired Categories

 * Best Seller: Introduced on September 8, 2004 and very rarely used. It was long believed to have been retired after February 8, 2007, but appeared again on April 22, 2011 after a nearly four-year absence; the extreme length of time between its apperances would suggest that its use in 2011 was a fluke. This is also the only category known to have been used in the Bonus Round exactly once (December 2, 2005).
 * Classic TV: Introduced in Season 14. Although it usually refers to the names of classic TV shows, it may also refer to characters or events from them; at least one Classic TV puzzle is known to have used the same format as Star/Role. For its first season or so, its category strip had a drawing of a console TV. This category has only two known appearances in the Bonus Round: May 4, 2004 and February 21, 2006. Its last two uses were May 6, 2008 and April 2, 2010, and it did not appear at all in Seasons 26 or 28; further, the December 8, 2008 show had THE GOLDEN GIRLS categorized as TV Title, suggesting a movement to retire Classic TV. Once again, its isolated appearance in 2010 may be a fluke.

Video Game Categories
The Wii, Nintendo DS, and Facebook adaptations of the game use Classic Movies and Book Title, neither of which appear on the actual show; however, the latter is identical to Best Seller. At least some of the time, these games also refer to TV Title as TV Show Title.

Retired Categories

 * The 20's through The 90's: Introduced in Season 10, these puzzles included things and events related to the decade in question. For about their first season of use, the "decade" categories were followed by a $1,000 trivia question (asked by Charlie) related to the decade in question. Also, until the category strips were changed in September 1995, the names were written out as words instead of numbers (i.e., The Twenties). Interestingly, The 90's was actually used within the 1990s itself. From about 1999 onward, only The 70's onward were used, and the last known use of the "decade" categories was a stray The 70's puzzle on September 27, 2006; The 60's made a one-time return on April 6, 2011 as part of a special "recycled puzzles" episode in honor of Going Green Week.
 * Composer/Song and Show/Song: Used only once each at some point in Season 13. It is believed that the only puzzle in the former category was RAVEL'S BOLERO, and very likely that the Show/Song puzzle was SOUTH PACIFIC'S YOUNGER THAN SPRINGTIME (it is known that the latter involved South Pacific in some way, and this is the most well-known song that would fit on the puzzle board).
 * Foreign Word(s) and Foreign Phrase: Two self-explanatory categories introduced in Season 9, though it is not known why Foreign Words was sometimes used when Foreign Phrase also existed. They were last seen early in Season 10. On an episode where MAZEL TOV was a Foreign Phrase puzzle (September 14, 1992), Pat explains that the answer has several acceptable Anglicized pronunciations, giving a very likely explanation for this category's short life; he also called it "the category from Hell", perhaps because of the long streak of incorrect letter guesses.
 * Nickname: Known to have been used since at least May 31, 1979 and as late as December 19, 1994. Given its very sporadic use in this timespan and a lack of any other pre-1988 episodes containing it, it has been extremely difficult to pinpoint the category's life.
 * Person/Title: The name of an actor/actress and a work they are famous for (i.e., CANDICE BERGEN IN MURPHY BROWN); sometimes, "starring" or "stars" preceded the word "in". Its first known appearance was on the August 31, 1989 daytime episode; it is known to have been present until at least October 26, 1995, so it was likely retired upon the introduction of Proper Name. Also, some Show Biz puzzles use the same format.
 * Rock On!: Introduced on October 25, 2005 and initially used only on college episodes, but later used on "normal" episodes as well. Each puzzle was themed to rock music in some way, most often referencing a rock act and/or song. Charlie introduced the category in a deep voice, except for one episode where Pat deliberately introduced it in a deadpan voice. On December 3, 2010 and February 9, 2011, Charlie's introduction was overdubbed with Pat saying the name of the category, following the decision to dub over Charlie on episodes that he recorded before his death. It is believed that the category is now officially retired, as these are the only two episodes after his death in which the category has been used.
 * Slang: Introduced on September 7, 1992 and used until about April 1995, many of its puzzles were archaic or, in some cases, outright-fabricated terms (i.e., OFF THE BEAM). Slang was used in the Bonus Round with disproportionate frequency, often appearing there several times in one month, perhaps because the category lent itself to short puzzles.

"Bonus" Categories
Between 1990 and 2008, the show had categories which offered the contestant a bonus for answering a question related to the puzzle. Initially worth $500, they increased to $1,000 in Season 13, $2,000 in Season 14, and $3,000 in Season 17.

If a contestant did not give a correct response to the "bonus" answer, it was initially offered to the next contestant(s) in line until someone gave a correct answer (except for Megaword). From September 1995 onward, only the contestant who solved the puzzle was allowed to guess. As mentioned above, Quotation and the "decade" categories also offered bonus questions, but these were always available only to the contestant who solved the puzzle, and until 1996 were asked by Charlie instead.

This line of categories was phased out gradually in the late 2000s with Where Are We? being the last to retire, in November 2008. Season 28 brought back the line with What's That Song?

There are several instances between late 1992 and late 2003 of other "regular" categories being followed by trivia questions related to the answer. The last known instance of a trivia question related to a non-"bonus" category was September 12, 2003, with a multiple-choice question following the Headline puzzle QUEEN ELIZABETH CELEBRATES MILESTONE. This practice re-started on November 8, 2011, with the Movie Quote puzzle I'LL GET YOU MY PRETTY AND YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO!


 * Clue: The puzzle described a specific object. Apparently introduced in October 1990, last used on January 18, 2005. This was the only "bonus" category used on the daytime version, offering $250. Until the introduction of Who Is It?/Who Are They? and Where Are We?, Clue puzzles sometimes described people, fictional characters or places as well.
 * Fill In the Blank: Debuted in Season 10, although the category strips called it Blank until September 1995. Interestingly, Fill In the Blank has actually been two different categories:
 * Initially, Fill In the Blank was an incomplete phrase that ended in a question mark (although there is one known instance of the question mark being in the middle); the contestant received a bonus for providing the exact remainder of the phrase.
 * By January 25, 1994, the "new" Fill In the Blank was introduced. This one was a word puzzle similar to Tribond, where the answer was three (sometimes four) phrases, names, etc. that had a missing common word, almost always at the beginning (i.e., ? DOE ? DEERE ? MCCAIN for answers of John Doe, John Deere and John McCain). This version is known to have been retired by September 2002, as confirmed by an alt.tv.game-shows posting by a contestant.
 * Interestingly, the two different Fill In the Blank categories overlapped until around November 4, 1994 (the last known instance of an "old-style" Fill In the Blank). A month later, the "old style" Fill In the Blank was renamed Next Line Please (see below). For some reason, both versions Fill In the Blank were just shown as "Blank" on the category strip until those were redesigned in September 1995.
 * Fill In the Number: A phrase with a missing number in it (i.e., ## TROMBONES LED THE BIG PARADE; the number is 76); debuted on April 7, 1998, last appeared April 28, 2004. Interestingly, the last Fill In the Number puzzle had two different numbers in it (# SCORE AND # YEARS AGO; the numbers are 4 and 7, respectively), when all other known instances had only one. Contestants would often solve these puzzles in different ways: some read the number signs as "number", some omitted them, and some just said the number while solving (which was regarded as a correct answer).
 * Megaword: An eight- to thirteen-letter word which the contestant received a bonus for using in a sentence. Debuted on September 20, 1994 and last seen April 7, 1995, with at least 21 playings during that time and only one known buzz-out (COPACETIC, on December 22). Megaword was likely retired for several reasons, the most obvious being Pat's clear dislike of it.
 * Next Line Please: An incomplete phrase, which the contestant received a bonus for completing; unlike the "original" Fill In the Blank, it did not end with a question mark. The category first appeared under this name on December 9, 1994 and was last used April 17, 2008.
 * Slogan: Known to have been used since at least February 9, 1996 as $1,000 Slogan. The puzzle was a product's slogan, and the bonus question involved identifying the product. (Oddly, there are three known puzzles {one being a Toss-Up} with the product name in them; obviously, the question was not asked.) This category was likely retired after a round on January 30, 2008 where the puzzle EAT FRESH was solved "Subway, eat fresh" and ruled correct for both the puzzle answer and identification of the product. February 19, 2008 is the category's last appearance.
 * What Are We Making?: The puzzle listed ingredients to a common food dish, which was then identified for the bonus. It was used only once, on October 23, 2007, and the contestant correctly identifed S'mores as the answer. Not counting the intentional one-shots listed below, this is the third known category to have been used only once.
 * Where Are We?: The puzzle gave three short clues to a specific place. Introduced in Season 10; last used November 28, 2008.
 * Who Is It? and Who Are They?: The puzzle gave a clue to a specific person or, far less often, a fictional character. Known to have been around since at least 1996, last used April 23, 2008.
 * Who Said It?: Known to have been used since at least April 3, 1996. Identical to Quotation, but with a bonus for identifying the source of the quotation. Last used October 27, 2006.

Intentional One-Shots
Besides the three categories listed above that were only used once, the show has used several unique categories:


 * 70's Song/Artists, 60's Event, etc.: During the week of December 27, 1999 (the first Retro Week), the category in Round 1 was appended with "60's" or "70's" to go with the "retro" theme. It is known that December 27 used "70's Song/Artists" and December 28 used "60's Event", so it is very likely that this theme was used throughout the week. The second Retro Week in 2001 did not do this.
 * Really Long Title: Used as a joke on April Fools' Day 1997, which had Pat and Vanna playing for charity. The answer was SUPERCALI-FRAGILISTIC-EXPIALIDOCIOUS, hyphenated in that fashion to fit on the board. Treated as a "bonus" category, it offered an extra $2,000 for identifying the musical that the word was from. Pat, who solved the puzzle, gave the correct answer of Mary Poppins.

Wheel 2000 Categories
Wheel 2000 used Person, Place, and Thing in the Bonus Round, but had a unique line of categories in the main game:


 * Above & Below: Puzzles related to Earth.
 * Book Soup: Puzzles related to literature.
 * Bright Ideas: Puzzles related to inventions.
 * Every Body: Puzzles related to body parts.
 * Globetrotter: Same as Place.
 * It Adds Up: Puzzles related to mathematics.
 * Just Stuff: Same as Thing.
 * Lab Test: Puzzles related to science.
 * Made in the USA: Puzzles related to the United States.
 * Measure It (sometimes Measurement): Puzzles related to measures and the like. Apparently never chosen.
 * Paint by Numbers: Puzzles related to art.
 * Space Case: Puzzles related to outer space.
 * V.I.P.'s: Same as Proper Name.
 * Word Rap: Puzzles related to grammar and punctuation (i.e., SEMI-COLON).