Hangman words
Hangman Words Without Vowels
Hangman words with no a, e, i, o or u, such as why, fly, gym, myth and rhythm. A short list that turns the usual vowel-first strategy upside down.
Read the word list
Every word on this list has no a, e, i, o or u. The y does the work of a vowel in each of them: why, try, fly, sky, gym, myth, rhythm. A player who opens with the usual vowels will miss five times before the y, which is why these are such a good trap. The list holds all 18 such words in our scored dictionary, so it is complete rather than a selection.
Unlike the other lists it is not ordered by difficulty. We took every word without a, e, i, o or u and listed the commonest first. Scores range from 5 to 10. Why and fly score 10, dry 9, gym 9, try and sky 8, and the longer words are lower, with rhythm, nymph, hymn, sync and myrrh at 5. A long vowelless word is easier than a short one because it has more letters to hit once the y is found.
Ten of the 18 are three-letter words, so the pattern is mostly short. That makes the list a handy one to introduce the idea that y is a vowel in disguise, and that guessing it early is a legitimate strategy.
18 entries. Our solver needed 7.0 wrong guesses on average: 0 easy, 0 medium and 18 hard. The toughest is why (10 misses), the quickest shy (5).
- why Hard · 10
- try Hard · 8
- fly Hard · 10
- dry Hard · 9
- sky Hard · 8
- cry Hard · 7
- gym Hard · 9
- shy Hard · 5
- myth Hard · 6
- rhythm Hard · 5
- fry Hard · 10
- sync Hard · 5
- hymn Hard · 5
- psych Hard · 7
- sly Hard · 6
- lynx Hard · 6
- nymph Hard · 5
- myrrh Hard · 5
Words worth a closer look
- whyScores 10, joint highest. A common word with every vowel guess a miss and a pattern that fits many three-letter words.
- flyScores 10. Here y is the only way into the word, so a vowel-first player loses five guesses before reaching it.
- gymScores 9. Short for gymnasium, with a y in the middle and nothing else to find. Easy to forget that it has no vowel.
- tryScores 8. A verb every child knows. Vowel guesses all miss, and the tr start gives little away.
- psychScores 7. A silent p at the start, and a ch at the end. A slang clipping of psychology, so check it suits your group.
- lynxScores 6. A wild cat. With no vowel to find, the solver has to reach y, n and x through a lot of misses.
- rhythmScores 5 with six letters. The two h's and the single y mean the board fills quickly once the y is hit. Commonly misspelled.
- myrrhScores 5. The double r and the final h are a surprise, and it is the same word that appears in the Christmas story.
How to use this list
The best way to use this list is as a challenge. Tell players the word has no vowels and let them work out what to guess, or play it without a warning and watch the opening vowel misses pile up. After the round, ask what the words have in common. Most students notice the y quickly.
In a spelling lesson, use the list to teach where y sounds like a vowel: at the end of a word (my, dry, fly), in the middle of a syllable (gym, myth, hymn) and in odd words like rhythm. A few, such as psych and hymn, also have silent letters, so they are a good place to talk about spelling that does not follow sound.
Print a Hangman Words Without Vowels 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
- Hardest Hangman WordsThe hardest hangman words in everyday English, ranked by how many wrong guesses a sensible player makes. Play the list online or print it.
- 3 Letter Hangman WordsThree-letter hangman words ranked by difficulty, from lab and jet to bin and zip. Short words fit many patterns, so they cost the most guesses.
- Short Hangman WordsShort hangman words that are harder than they look: three-letter words like was, why, key and dog, ranked by solver wrong guesses. Play or print.
- Hangman Words with J, Q, X and ZHangman words built around J, Q, X or Z, such as quiz, flex, pizza and galaxy. Rare letters make a word hard to guess until you think about them.
- 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.
- Hangman Letter FrequencyLetter frequency for hangman from 15,000 common words: the percent of words containing each of the 26 letters, and the best first guesses by word length.