Hangman Game

Guess the hidden word one letter at a time before the drawing is finished. Six wrong guesses and the round is over.

Players

How to play hangman online

Leave the Players drop-down on One player to have the computer pick the word.
Choose a Category, such as Animals, or pick Mixed categories to get a random one of the eight lists.
Choose a Difficulty: Easy (up to 5 letters), Medium (6 to 8), Hard (9 or more), or Any length. Changing the category or difficulty starts a new word straight away.
Guess a letter by typing it on a physical keyboard while the game is on screen, or by tapping a key on the on-screen QWERTY keys.
Read the result. A correct letter turns green and fills its blanks. A wrong letter is disabled and listed under the word.
To guess the whole word, type it in the “Know the word?” box and press Guess Word. A correct answer wins at once. A wrong one counts as one miss.
When the round ends, the full word is shown. Press New Game or Enter to start another.

Repeating a letter you already tried does not cost a guess. For two players, set Players to Two players, type a secret word, add an optional hint, and press Start Game. This page has no print or download function, so you play on screen only.

What is the hangman game? Meaning and definition

Hangman is a traditional pencil-and-paper word guessing game. One player picks a hidden word, and the other player guesses it letter by letter. Each wrong guess adds a part to a drawing of a gallows and a stick figure.

Hangman rules and how many guesses

The guessing player gets six wrong guesses. In this tool the parts appear in a fixed order: head, body, left arm, right arm, left leg, then right leg. The gallows frame is drawn from the start. Blanks show how long the word is, and a correct letter fills every blank where it appears. Repeated letters do not cost a guess, and a wrong whole-word guess counts as one miss.

Hangman game rules for two players

In two-player games, Player 1 types a secret word or phrase of up to 30 characters, with at least 2 letters. Letters, spaces, hyphens and apostrophes are allowed. Player 1 may also add a hint of up to 40 characters, such as “a fruit”, which Player 2 can see. Spaces and punctuation are shown for you and are not guessed. Two-player games do not change the streak or score, which count only one-player games.

How to play hangman on paper

One player writes the secret word as a row of dashes, one dash per letter, with a gap between words.
The other player calls out a letter.
If the letter is in the word, the first player writes it in every blank where it fits.
If it is not, the first player draws the next part of the figure.
The guessing player wins by completing the word before the figure is finished. The figure is finished after six wrong guesses.

How to draw hangman

Draw a short base line, then an upright post, a crossbar, and a short rope hanging from the bar. Draw the head as a circle at the end of the rope. Then add the body as a straight line, the two arms, and the two legs in that order. Keep the parts in the same order every game so players can track the misses.

Hangman ideas and word ideas

The eight category lists hold 564 words in total: Animals, Food, Countries, Sports, School, Jobs, Nature and Around the house. Multi-word answers such as new zealand, ice cream and table tennis are included. Any English word draws from a list of about 52,600 words, and a block list removes offensive, violent and adult words.

Best hangman strategy

Start with the most common vowels: E, A, O and I. Then try common consonants: T, N, S, R, H and L. Save J, Q, X and Z until the pattern needs them. Look at word endings too. Two blanks at the end are often -ED, -ER or -LY, and three blanks often mean -ING. For example, with APPLE, guessing E, then X and Q, shows four blanks with E at the end and two wrong guesses. Guessing A, P, L and E then completes the word with no wrong guesses.

Frequently asked questions

Is the hangman game free?

Yes. The game is free and needs no sign-up. It runs in your browser and does not send your scores to a server.

Can I add my own words to hangman?

Yes, in Two-player mode. Player 1 types one secret word or phrase of up to 30 characters, plus an optional hint. Custom lists of many words are not supported.

Does hangman work on a phone?

The game runs in the browser and you can tap the on-screen keys to guess. Typing on a physical keyboard is also possible when one is connected.

What is a good hangman word for kids?

Choose Easy difficulty, which means words of up to 5 letters, and a simple category such as Animals or Food. Easy words are short and quick to solve.

How many guesses do you get in hangman?

You get six wrong guesses. Each wrong letter or wrong whole-word guess adds the next part of the figure. Repeating a letter you already tried costs nothing.

Does the score count two-player games?

No. Two-player games do not change the win streak, best streak, won or lost counts. Only one-player games are counted, and those scores are saved only in your browser.

Can I use hangman for adult words?

Yes, through Two-player mode, where you type your own word. The Any English word category uses a block list, which removes offensive, violent and adult words.

Random Word Generator: use it to find a new random word for a game or a writing prompt.
Word Search Maker: use it to build a grid puzzle that hides your own word list.
Crossword Maker: use it to make a crossword from words you choose.
Word Unscrambler: use it when you have a set of letters and need to find the word they form.
Cryptograms: use it for a puzzle where each letter is replaced by another letter.
Wordle Solver: use it to narrow down possible answers while playing Wordle.
Anagram Solver: use it to find every word that can be made from a set of letters.
Word Ladder Solver: use it to change one word into another, one letter at a time.

About hangman

Hangman is a guessing game for two or more players. One player thinks of a word, phrase, or sentence and the other(s) tries to guess it by suggesting letters or numbers within a certain number of guesses. Originally a paper-and-pencil game, there are also electronic versions.

Overview

The word to guess is represented by a row of dashes representing each letter or number of the word. Rules may permit or forbid proper nouns (such as names, places, or brands) or other types of words (such as slang). If the guessing player suggests a letter which occurs in the word, the other player writes it in all its correct positions. If the suggested letter does not occur in the word, the other player adds (or alternatively, removes) one element of a hanged stick figure as a tally mark. Generally, the game ends once the word is guessed, or if the stick figure is complete—signifying that all guesses have been used.

The player guessing the word may, at any time, attempt to guess the whole word. If the word is correct, the game is over and the guesser wins. Otherwise, the other player may choose to penalize the guesser by adding an element to the diagram. If the guesser makes enough incorrect guesses to allow the other player to complete the diagram, the guesser loses. However, the guesser can also win by guessing all the letters that appear in the word, thereby completing the word, before the diagram is completed.

Strategy

The fact that the twelve most commonly occurring letters in the English language are e-t-a-o-i-n-s-h-r-d-l-u (from most to least), along with other letter-frequency lists, are used by the guessing player to increase the odds when it is their turn to guess. On the other hand, the same lists can be used by the puzzle setter to stump their opponent by choosing a word that deliberately avoids common letters (e.g., rhythm, zephyr, qi, nth) or one that contains rare letters (e.g., jazz).

Another common strategy is to guess vowels first, as English only has five vowels (a, e, i, o, and u, while y may sometimes, but rarely, be used as a vowel) and almost every word has at least one.

According to a 2010 study conducted by Jon McLoone for Wolfram Research, the most difficult words to guess include jazz, buzz, hajj, faff, fizz, fuzz and variations of these.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article “Hangman (game)” (revision 1351180418, 2026-04-26), authors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Shortened: some sections and paragraphs were left out, and reference markers, images and templates were removed; wording is otherwise unchanged. This text remains available under the same licence.