Hangman words

Long Hangman Words

Long hangman words from 14 to 16 letters, such as misunderstanding and straightforward. A slow, satisfying game that is rarely lost. Play or print.

Long word
Guesses left 8 Misses — Time 0:00
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Read the word list

Long words feel like the hard option and play like the easy one. Every word here has at least 14 letters, and all but two score 0 on our solver, meaning it found every letter without a single wrong guess. The reason is arithmetic. In our dictionary the commonest letters in 12-letter words are i, t, n, e and a, and a long word is almost certain to contain several of them.

The list is built from the 15,000 most common words, keeping those of 11 letters or more, ordered longest first and then by how common the word is. In practice that means 7 words of 16 letters, 20 of 15 and 33 of 14. Misunderstanding, unconstitutional, characterization and congratulations are all words people use, rather than curiosities.

The average word of 11 letters costs the solver 0.4 wrong guesses, and at 12 letters it falls to 0.3. A long word is a different kind of game from a short one: the guesser rarely loses, and the interest is in how fast the board fills.

60 entries. Our solver needed 0.0 wrong guesses on average: 60 easy, 0 medium and 0 hard. The toughest is correspondence (1 misses), the quickest misunderstanding (0).

Difficulty from our solver:Easy 0–1 missesMedium 2–4Hard 5+

Words worth a closer look

How to use this list

Use this list when you want a game that is satisfying rather than tense. It suits younger players who want to feel clever, and groups that need an activity that will not end in tears. The letter-by-letter reveal also makes a good spelling exercise: once the word is solved, ask the group to write it out from memory.

To add some bite, give a strict limit of three wrong guesses or play two words at once. If your players beat every word easily, move to the three-letter list, where the same group will lose most rounds. Many teachers keep both open and let players choose their own challenge.

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Print a Long Hangman worksheet

Long Hangman printable hangman worksheet: eight puzzles with letter blanks, a drawing frame and an alphabet strip

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.

Download PDF Answer key

Need another sheet?

Draw eight different words from this list, right here. Same layout, new answer key.

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