Hangman Word Generator

Where the words come from

"Any common word" draws from the 12,000 most common English words in our dictionary, after removing names, brands, slang and anything unsuitable for a classroom. A category draws from that category's hand-checked list, phrases included. The number beside each word is how many wrong guesses our solver made on it.

Getting the difficulty you want

Length is a poor guide to difficulty. Long words are usually easy, because they contain so many common letters, and short words are usually hard. If you want a quick, satisfying round for a class, try 6 to 10 letters at medium. For a real challenge, set 3 to 5 letters at hard. For young children, pick a simple category such as animals or food, 3 to 6 letters, easy.

"Play these words" opens the set in the hangman maker as a game you can share. "Print them" sends the words to the printable maker. For fixed lists you can come back to, browse the hangman word lists or the categories.

A note on randomness

Each click shuffles the matching words and takes the first ones, so you can generate set after set without repeats within a set. The pool for "any common word" deliberately leaves out the 400 most frequent words in English, such as the, and, because and people, which make dull hangman rounds, and anything that is a name, a brand or slang.