Hangman words
Hardest Hangman Words
The 50 hardest familiar hangman words, like pop, fox, jazz and puppy. Each one cost our solver at least nine wrong guesses. Play online or print.
Read the word list
These are the hardest hangman words we could find that everybody still knows. There are no obscure words, no names and nothing you would need a dictionary for: pop, fox, jazz, puppy and mummy are words a seven-year-old can spell. That is what makes them good for winning a round. When the answer is finally drawn in, the other side groans instead of arguing.
We picked the words by hand, then our solver played each one and counted the wrong guesses a careful player makes. Every word here cost it at least nine misses, and the average is 11.8. That is far past the six wrong guesses of a standard game, and well above our hard hangman words list, which averages 7.3. Pop is the worst of all at 17 misses. Fox and zoo cost 15.
Short words win because a three-letter word gives the guesser almost nothing to work with. Once the O in _O_ appears, the answer could be box, dog, hot, jog, mop, top or dozens more, and every wrong pick costs a turn. Just over half the list is three letters long. The rest are four- and five-letter words built from rare letters such as J, Z, K and V, or from doubled letters that hide behind common patterns, like the double Z in buzz. Longer favourites such as jungle and fluffy cost the solver only seven misses, so they live on the 6-letter list instead.
50 entries. Our solver needed 11.8 wrong guesses on average: 0 easy, 0 medium and 50 hard. The toughest is pop (17 misses), the quickest duck (9).
- pop Hard · 17
- fox Hard · 15
- zoo Hard · 15
- fix Hard · 14
- jay Hard · 14
- jet Hard · 14
- joy Hard · 14
- kit Hard · 14
- van Hard · 14
- bag Hard · 13
- bee Hard · 13
- bill Hard · 13
- buck Hard · 13
- buzz Hard · 13
- jog Hard · 13
- wow Hard · 13
- zip Hard · 13
- fog Hard · 12
- jam Hard · 12
- jazz Hard · 12
- jug Hard · 12
- jump Hard · 12
- mix Hard · 12
- wax Hard · 12
- yuck Hard · 12
- box Hard · 11
- buggy Hard · 11
- bump Hard · 11
- cup Hard · 11
- hog Hard · 11
- jar Hard · 11
- jaw Hard · 11
- junk Hard · 11
- map Hard · 11
- puck Hard · 11
- pup Hard · 11
- puppy Hard · 11
- wig Hard · 11
- jack Hard · 10
- jiffy Hard · 10
- jolt Hard · 10
- lucky Hard · 10
- puff Hard · 10
- wavy Hard · 10
- duck Hard · 9
- fuzzy Hard · 9
- muddy Hard · 9
- mummy Hard · 9
- pump Hard · 9
- wacky Hard · 9
Words worth a closer look
- popScores 17, the worst on the site. The O lands on the second guess, but _O_ fits so many words that the solver misses on 17 letters, including every common consonant, before it tries P.
- foxScores 15. The O lands early again, then the solver works through S, T, M, C, N, B, H, D, L, R, G, W and Y before the X and F.
- zooScores 15. Both O's land on the second guess, but _OO could be too, goo, moo or woo, and Z is one of the last letters anyone tries.
- buzzScores 13. The U shows on the fifth guess, but the B and the double Z hold out until 13 letters have missed.
- jazzScores 12. The A lands on the first guess, then nothing else does until 12 misses later, when the J and Z finally fill in.
- puppyScores 11. Three of its five letters are P, but the solver tries B, F, R, T, S, M and L first, because _U__Y fits plenty of words.
- jiffyScores 10. The I and Y appear early, then _I__Y keeps the solver guessing common letters until the J and the double F are all that is left.
How to use this list
Save this list for players who already beat the hard hangman words. In a standard six-guess game these words win nearly every time, so for a fair contest allow ten or twelve wrong guesses, or turn it into a challenge round where the player who loses the fewest guesses on the same word wins.
When you set the word, short and plain beats long and fancy. A guesser can grind through a long word letter by letter, but jug and wig have no pattern to work from. When you guess, stop and list the words that fit before you call a letter. Going down the usual order of S, T, R and N is exactly what these words punish.
Print a Hardest Hangman 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
- Hard Hangman Words60 hard hangman words like jinx, yacht and gecko: familiar words with rare letters and crowded patterns, each scored hard by our solver.
- Good Hangman Words60 good hangman words like penguin, pumpkin and volcano: fun, familiar words for family and class games, each scored by our solver for a close round.