Holidays and seasons · hangman category
Fall Hangman Words
Fall and autumn hangman words on leaves, harvest, orchards and cozy weather, with phrases and notes. Play online or print with an answer key.
Read the word list
Fall words come from three places: the trees, the farm and the kitchen. Trees give foliage, maple, acorn and the color words crimson, amber and russet. The harvest supplies pumpkin, gourd, cornfield and scarecrow. The kitchen adds cider, cinnamon, nutmeg and pecan. All of it stays clear of the holidays that fall in the season, so the list can run from September through November.
A good spread of lengths keeps a group playing. Oak, pie and rake are solved by most six-year-olds, while cornucopia and chestnut take more thought. Autumn has a silent n that trips up spellers, and foliage has a vowel pair that players often place in the wrong order. The phrases, including apple picking and harvest moon, work well on a whiteboard.
68 entries. Our solver needed 3.1 wrong guesses on average: 18 easy, 33 medium and 17 hard. The toughest is oak (11 misses), the quickest scarecrow (0).
- autumn Medium · 3
- harvest Easy · 1
- harvesting Easy · 1
- pumpkin Medium · 3
- scarecrow Easy · 0
- acorn Medium · 2
- squirrel Easy · 0
- foliage Medium · 2
- crisp Medium · 4
- maple Easy · 1
- oak Hard · 11
- birch Hard · 7
- hickory Medium · 4
- chestnut Medium · 2
- pecan Hard · 5
- apple Medium · 3
- cider Hard · 6
- orchard Medium · 3
- gourd Hard · 6
- cornucopia Easy · 1
- cornfield Easy · 1
- hayride Medium · 2
- haystack Medium · 3
- equinox Easy · 1
- september Easy · 1
- october Easy · 0
- november Medium · 2
- leaves Medium · 3
- rake Hard · 7
- raking Hard · 5
- bonfire Medium · 2
- sweater Easy · 0
- flannel Medium · 3
- migrate Easy · 0
- geese Easy · 1
- cranberry Medium · 2
- pie Hard · 5
- cinnamon Medium · 3
- nutmeg Medium · 4
- football Medium · 3
- windy Hard · 7
- gust Hard · 7
- chilly Hard · 5
- cozy Hard · 9
- golden Medium · 3
- amber Medium · 4
- crimson Medium · 2
- russet Easy · 1
- scarlet Easy · 0
- woodpile Easy · 1
- mushroom Medium · 3
- fallen Hard · 5
- bundle Medium · 2
- pinecone Medium · 2
- breeze Medium · 3
- tractor Medium · 3
- apple cider Medium · 2
- apple picking Easy · 1
- fall foliage Medium · 2
- corn maze Hard · 6
- hay bale Hard · 7
- autumn leaves Medium · 3
- pumpkin patch Hard · 5
- pumpkin pie Hard · 5
- leaf pile Medium · 3
- harvest moon Medium · 2
- fall festival Easy · 1
- warm sweater Medium · 3
Words worth a closer look
- autumnThe n is silent when the word stands alone but is heard in autumnal. Players tend to skip it when guessing, so it is one of the last letters filled.
- harvestIts Old English ancestor, haerfest, meant autumn itself. The season took on the name of the work that happens in it.
- cornucopiaFrom the Latin cornu copiae, horn of plenty. Ten letters with five vowels, and the o appears twice.
- foliageFrom the Latin folium, leaf. The ia in the middle is the usual spelling slip, since many writers expect an io, as in folio.
- gourdThe ou vowel pair does not match its sound, which makes it a good spelling example. Compare with court and four.
- pecanA word from an Algonquian language, referring to nuts that need a stone to crack. Players disagree on how to say it, but the spelling is fixed.
- equinoxHas an x and a q, two uncommon letters in one word. The autumn equinox, around September 22 or 23, is the first day of fall in the Northern Hemisphere.
Using this list in class
September and October are the best months for this list. A kindergarten class can sort leaves outdoors, then come back and guess leaf, oak and maple in a round. Third and fourth graders can use harvest, equinox and foliage with a science lesson on why leaves change color and why days shorten.
The color words are useful for writing workshop: after a round on crimson, amber and russet, ask each student to write a sentence using one. Print the sheet for a harvest festival table or a wait in the pumpkin patch line, and let families check the answers on the key.
Print a Fall 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
- Thanksgiving Hangman WordsThanksgiving hangman words covering the feast, the harvest, family traditions and early American history, from short table words to long, tricky ones.
- Halloween Hangman WordsHalloween hangman words with costumes, pumpkins, candy and friendly spooky themes. Play online or print a free sheet with an answer key.
- Back to School Hangman WordsBack to school hangman words covering supplies, classroom routines and school places, ready to play online or print as a free sheet with answers.
- Winter Hangman WordsWinter hangman words about snow, ice, cold weather and animals, with phrases and teaching notes. Play online or print a sheet with an answer key.
- Plants Hangman WordsPlant hangman words covering parts, growth and garden favorites, from root and stem to photosynthesis. Play online or print with an answer key.
- Christmas Hangman Words56 Christmas hangman words and 15 phrases, sorted by how hard they are to guess. Play online with this list or print a sheet with an answer key.