Hangman game

Guess the hidden word one letter at a time. Every wrong letter adds a part to the stick figure: 6 misses and the game is over. Pick a topic such as Animals, Food or Science (or a random mix). Each topic has a daily word with a leaderboard, and New word keeps the games coming.

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Today's word

How to play hangman

Choose a topic. Today is the daily word for that topic; New word starts an unranked practice game.
The dashes show how many letters the word has. Tap a letter (or type it). If it is in the word, it appears in every spot where it belongs.
A wrong letter draws one more part of the figure: head, body, two arms, two legs. After 6 misses the round is lost and the word is shown with its meaning.
On the daily leaderboard, fewer misses rank first and time breaks ties.

Hangman strategy

Open with vowels: E and A appear in most English words, then try O and I.
Next go for the most common consonants: R, T, N, S and L.
Use the topic. In Animals, an ending like _ _ _ _ E might be HORSE or MOOSE; think of words that fit before you guess.
Look for common endings such as -ER, -ING, -TION and -LE once a few letters are showing.

Where the words come from

The 814 words come from our topic lists, built from Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0) and our ENABLE dictionary: everyday nouns of 5 to 9 letters, with offensive words removed, so the game is fine for classrooms. After each round we show the word's meaning from WordNet. The daily word is picked from the date, so everyone gets the same one.

Frequently asked questions

How many wrong guesses do you get in hangman?

6: one each for the head, body, two arms and two legs. Some versions add a face or hands for more lives; we use the classic six.

Is this hangman game good for kids?

Yes. All words are everyday nouns from topic lists with offensive words filtered out, and there are no ads. Kids can practise with New word as often as they like.

Can I play hangman with a friend?

This page picks the word for you. To play with a friend, one person can pick a topic and the other guesses, or race each other on the same daily word and compare times on the leaderboard.

What happens if I lose the daily word?

The word and its meaning are shown, and you can keep playing with New word. Only solved daily words go on the leaderboard.

Hangman game

Solved!