World and history · hangman category
Ancient Rome Hangman Words
Hangman words from ancient Rome: emperors, buildings, roads and daily life, from toga to aqueduct. Play online or print a sheet with an answer key.
Read the word list
Rome is a staple of the middle grades history curriculum, and this list concentrates on what Romans built and how they lived: the forum and the senate, roads and aqueducts, togas and mosaics, and the writers and rulers whose names still turn up in textbooks. Military terms and violent spectacles are left out so the list suits a wide age range.
Short words like toga, villa, arch and road let the youngest players take part. Medium words such as forum, consul and mosaic need some thought. At the top end, amphitheater, plebeian, patrician and denarius are long and hold awkward clusters like ei, ci and ph, so they test spelling as much as guessing. Constantine, Hadrian and Trajan give older students a chance to show what they have read.
74 entries. Our solver needed 2.6 wrong guesses on average: 27 easy, 36 medium and 11 hard. The toughest is pax romana (11 misses), the quickest praetor (0).
- toga Hard · 5
- tunic Medium · 3
- villa Medium · 3
- arch Hard · 5
- road Easy · 1
- bridge Medium · 2
- column Medium · 4
- forum Medium · 4
- senate Medium · 3
- consul Medium · 3
- tribune Medium · 2
- patrician Easy · 1
- plebeian Easy · 1
- praetor Easy · 0
- magistrate Easy · 0
- citizen Medium · 3
- republic Easy · 1
- empire Medium · 4
- emperor Easy · 1
- caesar Easy · 1
- augustus Medium · 2
- tiberius Medium · 2
- trajan Medium · 2
- hadrian Medium · 2
- constantine Easy · 0
- cicero Hard · 5
- virgil Medium · 4
- ovid Medium · 3
- horace Easy · 1
- romulus Medium · 3
- remus Medium · 3
- aeneas Easy · 1
- colosseum Easy · 0
- aqueduct Medium · 3
- amphitheater Easy · 0
- basilica Medium · 3
- pantheon Easy · 1
- capitol Medium · 3
- palatine Easy · 0
- tiber Hard · 6
- pompeii Medium · 4
- vesuvius Easy · 1
- latin Hard · 5
- numeral Easy · 1
- alphabet Medium · 4
- calendar Easy · 0
- mosaic Medium · 3
- amphora Medium · 3
- denarius Easy · 0
- coin Medium · 4
- concrete Easy · 1
- sewer Easy · 1
- fountain Medium · 2
- bath Hard · 8
- laurel Medium · 2
- orator Medium · 2
- poet Hard · 5
- historian Easy · 1
- architect Medium · 2
- engineer Easy · 0
- chariot Medium · 4
- sandals Medium · 3
- roman empire Easy · 0
- roman republic Easy · 1
- julius caesar Medium · 3
- appian way Hard · 10
- roman numerals Easy · 0
- roman baths Hard · 5
- circus maximus Medium · 3
- hadrian's wall Hard · 6
- trajan's column Medium · 2
- pax romana Hard · 11
- seven hills Medium · 3
- bread and circuses Easy · 1
Words worth a closer look
- colosseumOpened in the year 80 and still standing in Rome. It has a single l and a double s, and the usual spelling slip is to double the wrong letter.
- aqueductFrom the Latin aqua, for water, and ducere, to lead. Roman engineers used gravity to carry water over long distances, often on tall arches.
- senateFrom the Latin senex, meaning old man. A short word with two e's, so it is a good one for a quick win.
- pantheonThe domed temple still standing in Rome. The word is Greek in origin and means of all the gods.
- appian wayOne of the earliest and best known Roman roads, begun in 312 BC. The double p in the first word and the repeated a make it easier than it looks.
- roman numeralsLetters stand for numbers: I, V, X, L, C, D and M. A good phrase to follow with a short lesson on reading dates on buildings.
- hadrian's wallA stone frontier built across northern Britain, begun around the year 122. The apostrophe is shown to players, which gives away that an s follows it.
- denariusA Roman silver coin, and the reason the old British penny was written with the letter d. Eight letters with four different vowels, so vowel guessers do well.
Using this list in class
Pair the list with a unit on ancient civilizations in grades four to seven. Students can pick a word, find it in a textbook or on a map of the Roman Empire, and add one fact before the next round. Place names such as Pompeii, Tiber and Palatine fit well beside a map of Italy.
Latin roots make a natural follow-up. Aqueduct, senate, forum and numeral all connect to words students use today, and a quick look at where each came from builds vocabulary as well as general knowledge. For a classroom display, the answer key makes a tidy glossary sheet to pin up beside a timeline.
Print a Ancient Rome Hangman worksheet
Eight puzzles on one US Letter page, with a clue, letter blanks, an empty frame to draw in, an alphabet strip to cross off and circles to count misses. Page two is the answer key.
Need another sheet?
Draw eight different words from this list, right here. Same layout, new answer key.
Keep going
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