Hangman Game

How to Use the Hangman Game

1. 1. Enter your words. Type one word or phrase per line. Add a clue after a dash, colon, equals sign or vertical bar — for example mitochondria - the powerhouse of the cell. Load example fills the box with eight biology words to try.
2. 2. Choose the rules. Pick between four and ten wrong guesses, decide whether to shuffle the order and offer clue buttons, and set up two to six teams if you are playing as a class.
3. 3. Play. Press the letter buttons or simply type on your keyboard. Right letters fill the blanks; wrong letters draw the gallows figure and are listed under the word. Show clue appears when the word has a clue.
4. 4. Go full screen. Full screen fills the display with the word, the figure and the on-screen keyboard — large enough to read from the back of a room. Press Esc to leave it.

How a Round Works

Each word starts as a row of blanks, one per letter. Spaces, hyphens, apostrophes and other punctuation are shown from the start, so a phrase like well-being or Treaty of Versailles appears with its shape visible. A guess is a single letter. If the letter is in the word, every copy of it is filled in at once; if not, it counts as a miss and the next stroke of the figure is drawn.

The figure has six strokes: head, body, two arms and two legs. With six wrong guesses allowed, each miss draws one stroke. With more allowed, the strokes are spaced out — one every one or two misses — so the figure is complete exactly on the last miss. A word is won when every different letter has been found, and lost when the misses run out, at which point the answer is shown with the missed letters in red.

Reveal a letter gives a struggling player a hand: it uncovers one hidden letter at the price of one miss. It is never offered when it would use the last miss or uncover the final letter, so it cannot end a round by itself.

Playing in Teams

Choose two to six teams and the game keeps score. The team whose turn it is stays highlighted above the word. A right letter keeps the turn, so a team that knows the word can keep going; a wrong letter passes the turn to the next team. The team that finds the last missing letter scores a point, and the next word starts with the following team. If the figure is completed, nobody scores. This gives every team a reason to think before guessing, because a miss costs the turn as well as a stroke.

Hangman as Vocabulary Review

Hangman works for review because the player has to retrieve a spelling from memory, not just recognise it. Put a unit's key terms in the list and write each definition as the clue. For language classes, use the target-language word as the answer and a translation as the clue. Accented and other non-English letters in your list are added to the on-screen keyboard automatically, so a Spanish, French or German list works as written.

Students who want a strategy can use letter frequency. In running English text the commonest letters are E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H and R, so starting with the vowels and a few of those consonants usually opens up the word. Word length and the clue should then steer the guesses.

Your Words Stay in Your Browser

The game runs entirely in your browser. The word list, the clues and the scores are never sent to CitationEasy or anyone else. If you tick Remember this list on this device, the list and your wrong-guess setting are saved in this browser's own storage so you do not have to retype them next lesson; nothing is uploaded, and unticking the box or pressing Clear saved list deletes it. On a shared school computer, leave the box unticked. The box is off by default.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you play hangman?

One player thinks of a word and the others guess it one letter at a time. Each correct letter is written into the blanks, and each wrong letter adds a stroke to a hanging figure. The guessers win by completing the word before the figure is finished. Here the computer holds the word, so everyone in the room can guess.

How many wrong guesses should a game allow?

Six is the classic number and matches a six-stroke figure: head, body, two arms and two legs. Use four for a hard challenge and eight to ten for younger pupils or long words. You can pick any number from four to ten, and the figure is paced so that it is finished on the last allowed miss.

Can I use my own word list?

Yes — that is the point of this version. Enter up to 200 words or phrases, each with at most 40 letters, one per line. A clue is optional and goes after a dash, colon, equals sign, vertical bar or tab. Repeated words are used once, and lines with no letters are skipped with a note telling you which.

What are the best letters to guess first in hangman?

In ordinary English text the most frequent letters are E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H and R, so a vowel-heavy start such as E, A, O, I is sensible. Word length and the clue should change your plan: a short word with no E, or a subject term ending in -ology, rewards a different order.

Can I play hangman with teams?

Yes. Choose two to six teams before you start. A right letter lets the team keep guessing, a wrong letter passes the turn, and the team that finds the last letter earns a point. Scores are shown above the word and again at the end of the game.

Does it work for languages other than English?

It does. Letters outside A–Z that appear in your word list, such as ñ, ü, é or ç, are added to the on-screen keyboard, and typing them on a keyboard that has them also works. The interface text on this page is in English, but the words can be in any language written in an alphabet.

Are my words saved or uploaded?

Nothing is uploaded. Your list is saved on your device only if you tick the remember box, and only in this browser. Untick it or press Clear saved list to delete the saved copy. Leave it unticked on shared computers.