Hangman - Classic Word Guessing Game

How to play

Hangman is a word-guessing game. A secret word is chosen and represented by a row of blank dashes, one per letter. Guess letters one at a time by clicking them or typing on your keyboard. A correct guess reveals the letter in every position it appears. An incorrect guess adds a part to the hangman figure. You win by guessing all letters before the figure is complete (typically 6 wrong guesses). If the figure is completed before you solve the word, you lose and the word is revealed.

Controls

• Click a letter on the on-screen keyboard, or press that letter on your physical keyboard.
• Letters already guessed are marked and cannot be selected again.

Strategy tips

Start with the most common letters in English to maximize your chances of an early hit:

1. E - appears in roughly 13% of English letters
2. T - ~9%
3. A - ~8%
4. O - ~7.5%
5. I - ~7%
6. N, S, H, R - each around 6%

After a few correct guesses, use the revealed letters to infer the word’s structure. Common short words (THE, AND, FOR) and common endings (-TION, -ING, -NESS, -LY) can help you identify the word even with several unknowns remaining.

A brief history

Hangman is believed to have originated as a Victorian-era parlor game, though the exact origin is uncertain. Early references appear in British books from the 1890s. The game became a popular classroom vocabulary activity in the 20th century and has since become one of the most recognized pencil-and-paper games worldwide.

Letter frequency reference

Word difficulty

Words of 6–8 letters tend to be the hardest to guess in Hangman because they are long enough to have complex letter distributions but not so long that common letters appear multiple times, giving useful hints. Very short words (3–4 letters) are often solved quickly because there are few possibilities. Very long words (10+ letters) often contain repeated vowels or common patterns that make them easier to identify once a few letters are revealed.