Hangman – Play Online for Free

Most people know Hangman from school: one player thinks of a word, the other guesses it letter by letter, and every wrong guess adds another stroke to the drawing. Where the game comes from is unclear. A similar guessing game, still without the drawing, appears in an 1894 collection of British children's games, and by 1902 a Philadelphia newspaper was already describing the version with the gallows on the blackboard. Television picked up the idea too: Wheel of Fortune, created by Merv Griffin and on the air since 1975, is built on the same principle of filling in a hidden phrase letter by letter. On this page you can play Hangman online, alone against the computer or with friends.

Letter by Letter: Rules and Tips for Hangman

You are looking for a word of which you see only the length at first, one dash for each letter. Tap a letter on the screen or press it on your keyboard. If it is in the word, it appears in every place where it occurs. If it is not, the drawing grows by one piece: first the gallows, then the head, body, arms and legs. Fill in the word before the figure is complete and the round is yours.

• The levels: on Easy even the gallows is built from your mistakes, and you have ten wrong guesses to spare. On Normal the base and post are already standing, which leaves eight. On Hard the frame is complete, you get only six wrong guesses, and the category stays hidden.
• The category: above the word you see where it comes from, such as Animals, Music, Fairy Tales or Countries. Most words come from everyday life, joined by fairy-tale characters like Rapunzel and Pinocchio and countries from Iceland to Australia.
• Two players: with the button showing two figures, one of you picks the word and types it in secretly while the other looks away. Then the other guesses with eight misses allowed, and in the next round you swap roles. The point goes to whoever solves the word, or to whoever chose it so well that it stays unsolved.
• Score: against the computer the game counts the words you won and lost, with two players the points of both of you. Press "New Word", or Enter after a round, to keep going.
• Accents: the words are written in capitals, and a letter you type with an accent counts as the plain one, so é counts as E.

With a little system you will solve far more words:

• Start with the most common letters: in English, E is by far the most frequent letter, followed by T, A, O, I and N. Opening with them uncovers a lot of the word early.
• No word without a vowel: if your first guesses have not turned up a vowel, try A, I, O and U before you risk a rare consonant.
• Look for letter pairs: a Q is almost always followed by a U, and once you have found an H, it often sits next to a C, S, T or W, as in CH, SH, TH and WH.
• Spot common endings: many words end in ER, ING, ION or Y. When only the last letters are missing, think of these endings first.
• Short words are tricky: a word with four letters gives little away through its pattern. Think about what fits the category before you risk a miss.
• Save the rare ones for later: J, Q, X and Z show up only now and then. Keep them back until the pattern points to them.

More Puzzles and Brain Games for a Quick Break

If you like guessing and figuring things out, here is plenty more:

• Word Search: letters again, this time hidden in a grid. Every word on the list that you spot gets marked off.
• Tic Tac Toe: X against O on nine squares, versus the computer or with two players on one device. Three of a kind in a line decides it.
• Battleship: more guessing, just not with letters. Shot by shot you search for your opponent's hidden fleet before it finds yours.
• Minesweeper: instead of letters you uncover squares, and the numbers reveal how many mines lie in hiding nearby.
• Sudoku: digits instead of letters. Each row, column and three by three box needs the numbers one through nine exactly once.