How to play Hangman

Hangman is the timeless word-guessing game, and it is one of the easiest ways to spend a few quiet minutes. A secret word is chosen for you and shown only as a row of blanks — one underscore for every letter. Your job is to figure out what the word is, one letter at a time, before the little figure on the gallows is fully drawn.

Goal

Reveal the whole word before you run out of guesses. Guess every letter the word contains and you win the round; let the figure finish first and the round is lost. Each completed game is added to your won-versus-played tally, which is saved on this device so you can watch your accuracy climb over time.

How to play

• Choose a letter by tapping it on the on-screen alphabet, or simply press the matching key on your keyboard.
• If the letter appears in the word, every copy of it flips into view in the blanks at once.
• If the letter is not in the word, it is crossed off the alphabet and one more piece is added to the hanging figure.
• You are allowed six wrong guesses. The seventh mistake completes the figure and ends the round, revealing the answer.

Strategy and tips

Open with the letters that turn up most often in English: E, T, A, O, I, N, S, R, and H. A couple of well-placed vowels early on usually sketches the shape of the word, and from there the consonants tend to fall into place. Once a few letters are showing, read the pattern rather than guessing blindly — the spacing and any short common endings (-ing, -ed, -er) often give the answer away. Hold back on rare letters such as Q, X, and Z unless the pattern truly points to them, since a single careless guess can cost you the game. Above all, slow down on the last couple of blanks; that is where most rounds are won or thrown away.