Hangman words
Good Hangman Words
Good hangman words for everyday play: common five to eight letter words that take three to five wrong guesses, so rounds are close without being cruel.
Read the word list
A good hangman word is one both players can win. It should be a word everyone knows, long enough to give the guesser something to work with and short enough that the setter still has a chance. That is what this list aims for: common words of five to eight letters, each scoring between 3 and 5 wrong guesses on our solver.
The selection rules are plain. We took words ranked between the 400th and 7,000th most common, kept those with a score from 3 to 5 and a length from 5 to 8 letters, and listed the commonest first. The top 400 are skipped because they are mostly small grammar words such as which, other and would, which make dull answers. The result reads like everyday speech: program, chance, board, field, force, price, space.
Scores of 3 to 5 sit at the upper edge of Medium and the start of Hard. Expect a competent player to lose now and then, and a beginner to lose often, which is what makes the game last.
60 entries. Our solver needed 3.6 wrong guesses on average: 0 easy, 50 medium and 10 hard. The toughest is study (5 misses), the quickest program (3).
- program Medium · 3
- chance Medium · 3
- study Hard · 5
- board Medium · 3
- field Medium · 3
- moment Medium · 4
- force Medium · 3
- price Medium · 4
- space Hard · 5
- strong Medium · 3
- account Medium · 3
- total Medium · 4
- above Hard · 5
- likely Medium · 4
- county Medium · 4
- couple Medium · 3
- break Medium · 4
- member Medium · 4
- middle Medium · 3
- result Medium · 3
- sorry Medium · 4
- guess Medium · 3
- movie Medium · 4
- became Medium · 3
- ground Medium · 4
- provide Medium · 3
- sound Hard · 5
- source Medium · 3
- official Medium · 3
- round Medium · 4
- amount Medium · 3
- green Medium · 3
- match Medium · 4
- model Medium · 3
- trust Hard · 5
- forward Medium · 3
- range Medium · 3
- brother Medium · 3
- football Medium · 3
- natural Medium · 3
- style Medium · 4
- august Medium · 3
- involved Medium · 3
- title Medium · 3
- attack Medium · 4
- cover Hard · 5
- simple Medium · 3
- simply Medium · 4
- super Medium · 3
- began Hard · 5
- built Hard · 5
- paper Hard · 5
- popular Medium · 3
- voice Medium · 3
- whose Medium · 4
- forget Medium · 3
- below Medium · 4
- truth Hard · 5
- piece Medium · 3
- visit Medium · 4
Words worth a closer look
- studyScores 5. Its only vowels are u and y, and a player who opens with a, e, i and o gets four misses before the u turns up.
- spaceScores 5. Space, spice, spare and spade all open with sp, so landing the first two letters still leaves several words standing.
- programScores 3 at seven letters. The repeated r and the g are not first-choice guesses, but the a and o arrive early and carry most of the word.
- momentScores 4. The two m's appear together once the first guess lands, so the o and the t decide the round.
- aboveScores 5 in just five letters. Three of its five letters are vowels, yet the v and b are the ones a player must find with few clues.
- truthScores 5. The u is its only vowel, so the usual a, e, i, o opening misses all four.
- trustScores 5. Another word where u is the only vowel, with t at both ends. Short enough to feel easy, hard enough to cost a limb.
How to use this list
This is the list to reach for when you have no idea who will be playing. It works for a classroom warm-up, a car ride or a family evening, because the words are familiar and the rounds are tense without being impossible. Give players six wrong guesses and most rounds will go to the last body part.
If a group wins too easily, move to the hard list. If someone is struggling, switch to the easy list, where every word scores 0 or 1. Mixing words from two lists in one session is a good way to keep a mixed-age group playing together.
Print a Good 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
- Easy Hangman WordsEasy hangman words that guessers solve in a guess or two: common five to eight letter words with frequent letters. Play online or print the list.
- Hard Hangman WordsHard hangman words that trip up good players: common four-letter words like walk, huge and zinc, scored by the wrong guesses a solver makes.
- Hangman Words for AdultsHard but real vocabulary for grown-up hangman, from quixotic to onomatopoeia. Play online or print a sheet with an answer key for game night.
- Hangman Words for KidsConcrete, picture-able words for K to grade 3 hangman, from cat and hat to rabbit and teacher. Play online or print a sheet with an answer key.
- Hangman Strategy for Guessers and SettersHangman strategy built on data from 15,000 common words: which letters to guess first by word length, when to switch, and how to pick hard words as setter.
- 6 Letter Hangman WordsSix-letter hangman words ranked by difficulty, from bought and bright to oxygen and puzzle. Words that stay medium-hard even with common letters.