World and history · hangman category
Countries Hangman Words
Hangman words from current UN member countries, from short names like Peru to long ones like Kazakhstan. Play online or print a sheet with an answer key.
Read the word list
Every answer here is a current member state of the United Nations, written as the short English name an atlas or news site would use. Names of two or more words, such as New Zealand and Sri Lanka, sit in the phrase list. Sticking to one standard spelling per country means the answer key is never in dispute.
The words cover a wide range of difficulty. Peru, Mali, Cuba and Chad suit early readers and small groups. Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Mozambique and Liechtenstein ask more of older players, because of rare letters like z, k and j, or sheer length. Some are hard for spelling reasons rather than letters: Philippines, Switzerland and Madagascar are known by sound, but few students write them correctly on the first try.
85 entries. Our solver needed 2.4 wrong guesses on average: 31 easy, 41 medium and 13 hard. The toughest is chad (8 misses), the quickest israel (0).
- peru Hard · 6
- mali Medium · 4
- cuba Hard · 6
- chad Hard · 8
- iran Hard · 5
- iraq Hard · 6
- fiji Hard · 5
- qatar Medium · 3
- chile Hard · 5
- japan Medium · 2
- india Medium · 2
- china Medium · 2
- nepal Medium · 2
- egypt Medium · 3
- kenya Hard · 5
- ghana Medium · 4
- italy Medium · 4
- spain Medium · 3
- haiti Medium · 3
- sudan Medium · 4
- norway Medium · 2
- sweden Easy · 1
- greece Medium · 2
- turkey Medium · 4
- russia Medium · 2
- poland Hard · 5
- france Medium · 3
- brazil Hard · 5
- canada Easy · 1
- mexico Medium · 4
- panama Medium · 2
- jordan Medium · 2
- israel Easy · 0
- cambodia Easy · 1
- vietnam Easy · 1
- finland Easy · 1
- iceland Easy · 1
- ireland Easy · 1
- germany Medium · 3
- denmark Medium · 2
- belgium Medium · 3
- portugal Medium · 2
- morocco Medium · 4
- nigeria Easy · 1
- senegal Easy · 0
- uganda Medium · 3
- ethiopia Easy · 0
- tanzania Easy · 1
- colombia Easy · 1
- ecuador Medium · 2
- bolivia Medium · 2
- uruguay Medium · 4
- thailand Easy · 1
- pakistan Medium · 2
- malaysia Medium · 2
- singapore Easy · 0
- indonesia Easy · 0
- argentina Easy · 0
- australia Easy · 1
- mongolia Easy · 1
- kazakhstan Medium · 3
- azerbaijan Easy · 0
- mozambique Easy · 1
- madagascar Medium · 3
- philippines Easy · 0
- switzerland Easy · 0
- liechtenstein Easy · 0
- afghanistan Easy · 1
- bangladesh Easy · 0
- new zealand Hard · 5
- south africa Medium · 2
- united states Medium · 2
- united kingdom Medium · 3
- saudi arabia Medium · 2
- costa rica Medium · 3
- sri lanka Medium · 4
- south korea Medium · 2
- north korea Easy · 1
- el salvador Easy · 0
- dominican republic Easy · 1
- papua new guinea Hard · 7
- sierra leone Easy · 0
- burkina faso Medium · 4
- cape verde Hard · 7
- north macedonia Easy · 1
Words worth a closer look
- qatarThe q is not followed by u, which breaks the rule most players rely on. Anyone who guesses q first in a country round will find it only here.
- kazakhstanThe largest landlocked country in the world by area. It has three a's and two k's, so a player who finds the vowels early still has plenty of consonants to work out.
- liechtensteinOne of only two doubly landlocked countries, meaning every neighbor is also landlocked. The other is Uzbekistan. The ie near the start and the ei near the end are easy to swap when spelling.
- nepalThe only national flag that is not a rectangle or square. A handy fact to share after the round, especially if you have the class draw flags.
- philippinesStarts with ph but sounds like f, and has a double p in the middle. Players who guess f will get nothing, which makes it a good lesson in spelling versus sound.
- chadOnly four letters, with the a as its sole vowel. A good first answer for younger players before they move on to the longer names.
- sri lankaFormerly known as Ceylon. Once the space shows the two parts, the repeated a in lanka makes it a quick win.
- switzerlandLandlocked, with a w and a z close together near the start. Many students find the spelling harder than the sound suggests.
Using this list in class
For a geography unit, print the sheet and have students find each answer country on a wall map or in an atlas before they are allowed to guess the next one. Older students can sort the answers by continent afterward, or name a capital city for each one.
The short names such as Peru, Chad and Cuba work from about second grade. The long ones suit fourth grade and up, particularly alongside a unit on continents or world flags. Teachers running a quiz day can read a clue aloud, such as a landlocked country in Central Asia, and let teams guess letters until they can name it.
Print a Countries 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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