Hangman - The Game

Hangman is a guessing game that typically requires two players... 

Hangman is a guessing game that typically requires two players. It was originally played with paper and pencil, although there are several online versions of the game now where players can compete against a computer. In the traditional game, one player would think of a word and the second player would attempt to guess that word by suggesting letters of the alphabet.

The word which is being guess would be represented by a row of dashes. There would be one dash for each letter in the word. There are several instances where more than one word has been used, thus there would be rows of word dashes used, one row for each word. If the player suggests a letter which is contained in the word, then the other player would write that letter into the correct dash. If the suggested letter is not contained in the word, then the player simply would draw one element of the hangman diagram. Once all letters of the word are guess before the entire hangman is drawn, the game is over. Alternatively if the hangman is drawn before the letters are completely filled in, the game is also over.

The diagram in the hangman game is actually fashioned to look like a hanging man. There have, in past years, been debates over whether or not the picture is in good taste, but the game remains in tact. The nature of the diagram may differ however depending on the player. Some players may draw the gallows before the game begins and then simply draw in parts of the man’s body such as the head for one wrong guess, the torso for another and so on. Some players actually begin the game with no diagram at all and draw in the individual elements of the gallows as the game progresses. This is typically the way the game is played when more than one word is used in the puzzle.

There are modifications of the game as well. Some players allow others to use vowels freely, without drawing in parts of the hangman for wrong guesses for these letters. Others simply use all letters as part of the game. Although the origins of the game are not known, it is believed that hangman begin during the Victorian Times, as it is mentioned in Alice Bertha Gomme’s “Traditional Games” written in 1894.

Just as there are many instances of the game in play, there are also many strategies that players use. Since the 12 most commonly occurring letters in the English alphabet are E,T,A,O,I,N,S,H,R,D,L and U, these are typically used by most players first. Players will use these common letters to increase their odds of getting letters in play as opposed to hangman drawings.

Of course the same lists can also be used by the hangman player to stump his opponent. The player can choose a very difficult word to guess such as quartz or rhythm that contains letters used more rarely in language, thus giving him a better chance of drawing out the hangman before his opponent fills in the word. his site will be about crosswords and puzzles.