How to play hangman
- Let the computer pick a word from a category, or choose A friend so someone can type a secret word while you look away.
- Guess letters by tapping them or typing on your keyboard. Right letters fill in every place they appear in the word.
- Each wrong letter adds a part to the drawing. Find the word before six wrong guesses complete it.
Which letters to guess first
The most common letters in English words are E, A, R, I, O, T, N and S. Start with two or three vowels to see the shape of the word, then move on to common consonants.
- Look at the length. Long words almost always have two or more vowels. Short ones often hide a Y.
- Watch the endings. A word ending in two blanks after an I may be ING. A final blank after an E is often R, D or S.
- Use the category. In Sports, an ending of _ING is likely. In Jobs, look for ER and IST.
Hangman is an old pen-and-paper game that goes back at least to the late 1800s in England. The drawing changes from place to place, but six wrong guesses is the most common count.