Hangman
About Hangman
Hangman is the classic word guessing game, free to play in your browser on phone, tablet or desktop. No download, no install, no sign-up.
A secret word hides behind a row of blanks, and its category is your only clue. Guess the word one letter at a time. Our version swaps the gallows for a bunch of balloons: every wrong letter pops one, and you win if the word is complete before the basket touches the ground.
There is also a daily hangman puzzle: one new word a day, the same for everyone.
How to Play
- Tap a letter on the keyboard, or type it.
- If the letter is in the word, it shows up everywhere it belongs. If it isn't, a balloon pops.
- Find the whole word before the last balloon pops.
- Stuck? The hint button reveals a letter, but it costs a balloon.
Three difficulty levels change the words and your balloons. Easy gives you eight balloons and long words, which give a lot away. Medium has six balloons, and Hard only five, with short words that are surprisingly tricky. Your streak and stats are kept separately for each.
Tips & Tricks
- Start with the vowels E and A are in most words, and a vowel or two quickly shows the shape of the word.
- Then the common consonants R, S, T, N and L hide in a lot of words. Save rare letters like J, Q and Z for when you have a real suspect.
- Think inside the category Before you guess, run through words of the right length in the category. Two or three candidates usually tell you which letter to try.
- Watch the endings Endings like -ING, -ER and -ION show up again and again. One revealed letter at the end of the word can point to a whole ending.
- Keep the hint for last A hint costs a balloon, just like a wrong guess, so use it when you have no good letter left to try.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why balloons instead of a gallows?
Hangman is a family game, played in classrooms and at kitchen tables, so we gave it a friendlier picture. The rules are the classic ones: a wrong letter costs you a balloon instead of a stroke of the drawing.
Where do the words come from?
Every word comes from our themed word lists, checked by hand so that each one is an everyday word that truly belongs to its category. There are about fifty categories, from animals and fruits to sports and space.
Do I have to finish a word?
You can skip to a new word at any time, but once you have guessed a letter, skipping counts as a loss and ends your streak.
Does my progress get saved?
Your current word, your streak and your stats are saved locally in your browser. They are tied to that browser profile, so clearing site data or switching devices will not bring them with you.
Is the game free?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser with no sign-up required.
A Short History of Hangman
Nobody knows exactly where Hangman began, but it seems to date from Victorian Britain: an 1894 collection of traditional games describes a version called Birds, Beasts and Fishes, in which players guessed the name of an animal letter by letter. The pencil-and-paper game has been a classroom favorite ever since, and it inspired the television game show Wheel of Fortune.