How many wrong guesses do I get?

Six. Each wrong letter adds a body part to the figure (head, body, two arms, two legs). Six wrong letters complete the figure and end the round. The word-length and difficulty don't change the wrong-guess limit.

What's the best opening letter?

E — it appears in roughly 70% of English words. After E, the strongest openers are A, R, I, O, T, N, S, L. Hitting four of these vowels and consonants typically reveals enough of the word to guess the rest. Save Q, J, X, Z for late in the round, only when the pattern strongly suggests them.

Can the same letter appear twice?

Yes. If a word contains two of the same letter, both are revealed when you guess that letter once. So guessing L when the word is LITTLE reveals both Ls in one move.

How is difficulty different across levels?

Word length and vocabulary obscurity change, but the six-wrong-guess limit stays the same. Easy uses common 3–5 letter words; Medium uses 5–7 letter everyday vocabulary; Hard uses 7+ letter less-common words. The harder lists reward letter-frequency strategy more than the easier ones.

Where does Hangman come from?

The game appears in print in Victorian England — the earliest documented version is in Alice Bertha Gomme's Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), under the name Birds, Beasts, and Fishes. The gallows-figure visual that gave the modern game its name became standard through 20th-century schoolyard play.

Hangman — Free online word guessing game

Play Hangman — Guess the Word Before the Figure Completes

Hangman is the classic word-guessing game where you reveal a hidden word one letter at a time. Each wrong guess adds a body part to the figure; each correct guess reveals every instance of that letter in the word. You win by guessing the word before the figure is complete (six wrong letters in our version). The mechanic is simple, but the skill is in choosing letters that test the most unknowns at once. Free in your browser, no sign-up. Works offline once the page has loaded.

How Do You Play Hangman?

Goal: guess the hidden word before six wrong letters complete the figure.

Setup

Hidden word: drawn from the chosen difficulty's word list. Length is shown as a row of blank spaces.
Alphabet: 26 letters available. Each can be guessed once.
Wrong-guess counter: six wrong letters end the round. Each wrong letter adds a body part to the figure.

Rules

Click any letter you haven't tried. If the letter is in the word, every instance is revealed in the blanks.
If the letter is not in the word, one body part is added to the figure.
You can only guess each letter once. The keyboard tracks which letters you've used.
Six wrong letters complete the figure and end the round in a loss.
Revealing every letter of the word ends the round in a win.

Difficulty Levels

Difficulty controls the word length and obscurity, not the number of guesses.

Level	Word length	Vocabulary	Best for
Easy	3–5 letters	Common words	Kids, first-timers
Medium	5–7 letters	Everyday vocabulary	The standard round
Hard	7+ letters	Less common words	Players testing letter-frequency strategy

What's the Best Hangman Strategy?

Open with vowels. E, A, I, O, U cover most English words. Guessing E first reveals an E in roughly 70% of words. A and I are also strong openers.
Then move to common consonants. R, S, T, L, N are the most frequent consonants in English (the same five Wheel of Fortune gives away). Knock these out before reaching for J, Q, X or Z.
Use the gaps to guide your guesses. Once you've revealed a few letters, the pattern often points to a specific word. _AT_ER strongly suggests WATER, BATTER, MATTER — the next letter test should distinguish among them.
Track the wrong-letter count. If you've used five vowels and three common consonants without revealing much, the word is likely unusual. Switch to less common letters and word patterns.
Guess word endings. If a word ends in _ING, _TION, _LY or _ED, those endings are far more common than random letter combinations. Recognising them is a fast path to the answer.

A Short History

Hangman appears in print in Victorian England — the earliest documented version is in Alice Bertha Gomme's Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), where she calls it Birds, Beasts, and Fishes. The figure-on-gallows visual that gave the modern game its name appears in various forms throughout the 20th century, becoming standardised through schoolyard play. Most digital versions, including ours, use a six-wrong-guess limit and the standard stick-figure progression.

About This Version

This Hangman runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Three difficulty levels with separate word lists. Install as an app on your phone or computer; once installed it works offline. Statistics track your win rate per difficulty.

Other Word and Puzzle Games to Try

Word Search — find hidden words in a grid of letters
Word Scramble — unscramble jumbled letters into a word
Sudoku — fill the 9×9 grid with logic, no guessing required
2048 — slide and merge tiles to reach 2048