Hangman: Guess the Word, Save the Astronaut

What is Hangman?

Hangman is the classic guess-the-word game, free to play online here on your phone, tablet or computer with nothing to download. A word is hidden as a row of blank tiles and you guess it one letter at a time. Every right letter fills in wherever it appears; every wrong one draws the next piece of a picture, and you have to finish the word before the picture is complete.

In this version nobody is ever in trouble. The picture is a little rocket hovering in a dusky sky, its rope ladder, and an astronaut dangling from the bottom rung, drawn a piece at a time. Solve the word and the astronaut climbs aboard and the rocket blasts off in a burst of stars. Run out of misses and their grip slips, but a parachute pops open and they float down onto a fluffy cloud, smiling and waving.

There are more than 2,200 words in twelve categories, from Animals and Space to Feelings and Around the house, at Easy, Normal and Hard, plus over 400 phrases and sayings. Play as many words as you like, take on the Daily Hangman that everyone shares, or pass the device to a friend for two player Hangman with your own secret words.

How to play Hangman

1. 

   1Read the category

   Each word shows its category and one blank tile for every letter. In phrases, the spaces, hyphens and apostrophes are filled in for you.

2. 

   2Guess a letter

   Tap a key or type a letter. A right guess fills in every place it appears and turns its key green.

3. 

   3A miss draws the next piece

   Every wrong letter adds a piece to the picture: the rocket, its thrusters, the rope ladder, then the astronaut. The counter shows how many misses you have used.

4. 

   4Use a hint, or solve it

   The bulb reveals the letter that narrows the answer down most, for one miss. Solve lets you type the whole answer at once.

5. 

   5Solve it and blast off

   Fill in the whole word and the astronaut climbs aboard, then the rocket turns nose up and blasts off in a burst of stars.

6. 

   6Out of misses? A soft landing

   Use up every miss and the answer is shown, while the astronaut parachutes safely down to a cloud and waves.

The rules in full

1. The goal: work out the hidden word or phrase before the picture is finished. The category and the number of letters are shown above the blank tiles.
2. Tap a letter on the on-screen keyboard or type it on your keyboard. If it is in the word, it fills in every place it appears.
3. A letter that is not in the word is a miss. Each miss draws the next piece of the picture: the rocket, its thrusters, the rope ladder, then the astronaut piece by piece.
4. Choose how many misses you allow in Settings: 6 for the classic game, 8 or 10. The counter at the top shows how many you have used, and pieces still to come show as a faint dashed outline.
5. The keyboard keeps track for you. Green keys are in the word, dim crossed-out keys are not, and plain keys are still to try.
6. Stuck? The bulb key reveals one letter, picked by a solver as the one that rules out the most possible answers. It costs one miss, each word allows one hint (answers of 12 letters or more allow two), and it can't be used on your last miss.
7. Think you know it? Press Solve and type the whole answer. If you're right you win at once; a wrong guess costs one miss.
8. Fill in every letter to win, and the astronaut climbs the ladder and the rocket blasts off. Use up your misses and the answer is shown while the astronaut parachutes safely down to a cloud.

Hangman tips and strategy

• Start with the vowels E, A and O, then try the most common consonants: T, N, S, R and L.
• Use the category. A Countries answer ending in -IA or -STAN, or a Jobs answer ending in -ER, narrows things down quickly.
• Look at the shape of the word: how long it is, where the gaps fall, and common endings such as -ING, -TION, -ER and -LY.
• In phrases, the short words are a gift. A three-letter word is often THE or AND, and a two-letter word is often OF, IN or TO.
• Save the hint for when you are truly stuck. It costs a miss, but it picks the letter that tells you the most.
• Only press Solve when you are sure. A wrong guess at the whole answer costs the same as a wrong letter.
• Short words can be harder than long ones, because there are fewer letters to give them away. Easy mode keeps to familiar words of a friendly length.
• Rare letters like J, Q, X and Z are risky early on, but once a few letters are in place they can crack a word wide open.

A Hangman game where nobody gets hurt

Hangman has always been a drawing game: whoever chose the word sketches a little more of a picture for every wrong letter. The traditional picture is a grim one, and plenty of classrooms and families swap it for a snowman, a flower or a spider instead.

Here the picture is a rocket rescue. Each miss draws the next part: the rocket, its thrusters, a rope ladder unrolling from the hatch, and an astronaut holding on to the bottom rung, from helmet to boots. The pieces still to come show as a faint dashed outline, so you can always see how many misses you have left.

Every ending is a happy one. Win, and the astronaut climbs aboard, the rocket tips its nose up and blasts off in a shower of stars, then swoops back across the sky on a lap of honour. Lose, and a striped parachute pops open and floats them gently down to a cloud, where they land, smile and wave.

Hangman words in twelve categories, from Easy to Hard

Pick a category or play them all mixed: Animals, Countries, Food and drink, Space, Sports, Science, Nature, Jobs, Around the house, Music, Transport and Feelings. Every category has more than 150 words, chosen to be family friendly and spelled the same in British and American English.

Easy keeps to everyday words, mostly four to eight letters long. Hard brings in longer and rarer words like ARCHIPELAGO and XYLOPHONE, along with the very short ones that give you little to go on. Normal mixes the two.

Phrases mode swaps single words for two or more: polar bear, fish and chips, over the moon, or a saying like piece of cake. Spaces, hyphens and apostrophes are shown from the start, and within a category no word comes round again until you've seen them all.

The Daily Hangman: one word for everyone

Every day brings a new Daily Hangman word, the same for every player on that date. It always allows six misses, the classic number, so everyone plays exactly the same game.

Solve it to grow your daily streak. Your result is saved, and Share sends a summary that keeps the word secret: a green square for each right letter, a red one for each miss and a bulb for a hint.

Missed a day? Past days wait in the calendar to be played any time, though only words solved on their own day count towards your streak.

Two player Hangman: pass and play

Two player Hangman is how the game has always been played: one person thinks of a word and the other guesses it. Enter both names, then the player choosing types a secret word or phrase into a hidden box while the other looks away. Add a clue if you like, then hand the device over.

Guess the word to score a point. If the astronaut parachutes down, the point goes to whoever chose the word. Roles swap every round, and the score is kept until you reset it.

Hangman for kids, classrooms and every screen

Hangman is a favourite way to practise spelling and vocabulary, and this version suits young players: friendly everyday words on Easy, an A to Z keyboard if QWERTY is unfamiliar, up to ten misses, and an ending that is never scary.

It plays well on a phone held upright, on a tablet or on a computer, with big keys to tap or a keyboard to type on. Calm motion stops the swaying and waving and shortens the endings, and every letter, key and result is announced to screen readers.

Your stats stay in your browser: games played, win rate, current and best streaks, how many misses your wins took, and results by category and difficulty. An unfinished word is saved too, so you can close the page and carry on later.

Where Hangman comes from

Nobody knows exactly who invented Hangman. Games in which one player picks a word and the others guess it letter by letter were played in Britain in the 1800s, and one is described in Alice Gomme's 1894 collection of traditional games under the name Birds, Beasts and Fishes.

The pencil-and-paper version, with a drawing that grows with each wrong guess, became a schoolroom favourite in the twentieth century. Its rules take a minute to learn and it needs nothing but something to write with, which is why it is still played all over the world.

Hangman FAQ