How to play Hangman
Hangman is the classic word game of guessing a hidden word one letter at a time. Each right letter appears in its place; each wrong letter costs a petal from our flower. Find the word before the last petal falls.
Step by step
Read the clue
Each word comes with a theme, such as Garden, Kitchen or Birds. The squares show how many letters the word has.
Guess a letter
Tap a letter, or type it on your keyboard. If it is in the word, it appears in every square where it belongs.
Watch the flower
A letter that is not in the word costs one petal. Seven petals means you can make seven wrong guesses.
Use the free hint
Stuck? The free hint shows one hidden letter. It never costs a petal, and you get one for every word.
Find the word
Fill in every letter before the last petal falls and the word is yours. If the petals run out, the word is shown and the flower grows back for the next one.
Play the daily five
The daily puzzle has five words, the same for everyone. Find at least four of them to count the day as solved.
The full rules
What you need
On paper, Hangman needs one person to think of a word and another to guess it. The word is written as a row of dashes, one for each letter, and wrong guesses are counted with a drawing. On GamesBento the computer chooses the word, so you can play Hangman online on your own at any time.
The aim
Find the hidden word by guessing its letters one at a time, before you run out of wrong guesses. In our free Hangman game the wrong guesses are counted by a flower in a pot: it loses one petal for each letter that is not in the word.
How to play
The squares in the middle of the screen show how many letters the word has, and the clue above tells you its theme.
- Tap a letter on the A to Z keys, or type it on your keyboard.
- If the letter is in the word, it appears in every square where it belongs. Its key is marked with a tick.
- If it is not, a petal drifts down from the flower and the key is crossed out. The wrong letters are also listed next to the flower.
Fill in every square and the word is found. If the flower loses its last petal first, the word is shown to you, and the flower grows back for the next one.
The free hint
Every word has one free hint. Press Free hint (or the ? key) and one hidden letter is filled in for you, marked with a small blue dot. It never costs a petal. The hint will not give away the very last letter, so the final step is always yours.
The daily puzzle
Every day there are five new words, each with its own clue, and everyone gets the same five on the same date. The daily Hangman word game uses seven petals for every word. Find at least four of the five to count the day as solved, which keeps your daily streak going and lets you add the result to the weekly leaderboard if you like.
Practice
After the daily puzzle, choose New game and then Practice to play Hangman free for as long as you like. Choose how many petals the flower has:
- Easy: seven petals and two leaves, so nine wrong guesses. The leaves go first.
- Medium: seven petals.
- Hard: five petals.
You can also choose words with a clue, or any everyday five-letter word with no clue at all. Practice keeps count of how many words you have found in a row.
Tips for guessing
- Start with the vowels and common letters. E, A, O, I, R, T, N and S turn up in most words.
- Use the clue. If the theme is Fruit and the word has six letters, BANANA, CHERRY and ORANGE are worth thinking about.
- Look at the shape. If the word ends in E and one blank square, it may end in -ER or -ED. Remember that one letter can fill two squares side by side, as in LL or EE.
- Think before the rare letters. Q, Z, X and J are seldom in the word, so save them until the shape points to them.
- Save the hint for when you are truly stuck. One well-placed letter often makes the whole word appear.
Common questions
Why is there a flower instead of a hangman?
The traditional pencil-and-paper game draws a little gallows figure, one line for each wrong guess. We prefer something kinder, so a flower loses a petal instead. The rules are exactly the same.
How many wrong guesses do I get?
The daily puzzle allows seven, one for each petal. In practice you can choose Easy, with seven petals and two leaves (nine guesses), Medium with seven, or Hard with five.
Does the hint cost anything?
No. Each word has one free hint that shows a hidden letter. It never costs a petal, and a word found with the hint still counts as found.
Is there a new puzzle every day?
Yes. There are five new words every day, and everyone gets the same five on the same date. When you have finished, you can carry on with as many practice words as you like.
What sort of words are used?
Friendly everyday words of five to nine letters, each with a theme such as Fruit, Weather or At the seaside. Practice also offers a no-clue mode with everyday five-letter words.
Can I play Hangman free online here?
Yes. Hangman on GamesBento is free to play in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with no download and no sign-up. Your game is saved on your device if you need to stop part way.
Where it comes from
Hangman is a traditional pencil-and-paper guessing game. Its exact beginnings are not known, but versions of it are thought to have been played in Britain by the late nineteenth century, and it has long been a favourite in classrooms, on long journeys and in puzzle books. The usual drawing of a gallows is simply a way of counting wrong guesses, which is why many people today play with a flower, a snowman or a ladder instead.
