Hangman Details

Hangman is probably the first word game most of us ever played – on the back of a school exercise book, or chalked up on a blackboard on the last day of term. The rules haven’t changed, but it turns out there’s a bit more strategy to it than just shouting out letters.

Here’s how our Hangman game works, and how to pick your letters so you win far more often.

How it works

The game picks a hidden word or phrase and shows you a row of empty tiles, one for each letter. Guess a letter by typing it or tapping it on the on-screen keyboard.

• If the letter is in the word, every tile with that letter fills in, and the key is marked as a hit.
• If it isn’t, the key is marked as a miss and another part is added to the drawing.
• You can make six wrong guesses. On the sixth, the figure is complete and the game is over.

Fill in the whole word before that happens and you win – and the little figure even cracks a smile.

Categories

There are nearly 200 words and phrases to guess, spread across 12 categories: Animals, Food & Drink, Sports & Games, Places & Travel, Science & Nature, Technology, Occupations, Idioms & Phrases, Movies & Shows, Household & Everyday, Weather & Seasons, and Music & Arts.

You can pick one category from the menu, or play with All categories. If you choose All, the game still tells you which category each word comes from – and that’s a bigger clue than you might think.

About a quarter of the answers are phrases rather than single words, like the name of a film or a well-known saying. The gaps between the words are shown, so you can see how long each word is.

Which letters to guess first

This is where most games are won or lost. We counted how often each letter appears across all the answers in our game, and a few letters stand out:

So a strong opening is E and A, then O, R and T. Save the rare letters – V, J, Q, X and Z – until you’re fairly sure they’re in there. A random guess at Z is almost always a wasted life.

Let’s play one together

Here’s a practice word that isn’t in the game. The category is Animals, and there are eight tiles:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

E – it’s in! It’s the last letter: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E.

A – no. One wrong guess. Even the most common letters miss sometimes, so don’t panic.

O – yes, twice: _ O _ _ O _ _ E. Two Os and an E at the end, in an eight-letter animal.

T – yes, twice again: T O _ T O _ _ E.

Now think about animals rather than letters. TO_TO__E… a slow animal with a shell? R, I and S fill in the rest: TORTOISE. Solved with just one wrong guess.

Notice the switch halfway through. At the start you’re playing the odds with common letters. Once a few are in place, stop guessing letters and start guessing words – then pick the letters that word needs.

More tips

Use the category. An eight-letter animal is a much smaller list than any eight-letter word. Before each guess, run through a few answers that would fit the category and the length.

Look at the shape. Where the filled-in letters sit tells you a lot. A word ending in E might end -ATE, -ICE or -OSE. One with _ _ ING at the end is almost certainly a verb or activity.

Spot common pairs. Once you’ve got one letter of a pair, try its partner: TH, SH, CH, ER, QU. A Q is nearly always followed by U, and an H often follows T, S or C.

In phrases, guess the little words. A three-letter word in a phrase is very often THE, and two-letter words are often OF, ON, IN or TO. Getting those gives you letters for the longer words too.

Think twice about the hint. The Hint button reveals one random letter – but it costs you a guess, exactly like a wrong answer. It’s worth it when you’re stuck and the letter could unlock the whole word. It isn’t worth it early on, when a good guess at E or A would probably have worked anyway.

Don’t forget the spelling. Some answers use American spellings, so if you’re sure of a word but a letter won’t fit, the American version might be the one you want.

Keeping score

Under the game you’ll see your wins, your losses, your current streak and your best streak. They’re saved on your device, so your record is still there next time you visit. Pressing Reveal word counts as a loss and resets your streak – so there’s a good reason to keep going to the very last guess.

Questions people ask

Is it free?
Yes, completely. No account or sign-up needed.

How many wrong guesses do I get?
Six. The counter under the drawing shows how many you have left.

Will I get the same word twice?
Not straight away. The game avoids repeating any of the last eight words you’ve played.

Can I play on my phone?
Yes. Just tap the letters on the keyboard under the puzzle. On a computer, you can type the letters instead.

What happens if I lose?
The game shows you the answer. Press New word to try another. You can also press Reveal word at any time to see the answer, but that counts as a loss.

Over to you

Start with E and A, use the category, and see how long a streak you can build. Open Hangman and give it a go. If you like guessing letters, Cipher Desk takes the same skills a step further.

Good luck!