History
"The origins of Hangman are obscure, but it seems to have arisen in Victorian times," says Tony Augarde, author of "The Oxford Guide to Word Games" (Oxford University Press).
The game is mentioned in Alice Bertha Gomme's "Traditional Games" in 1894 under the name "Birds, Beasts and Fishes." The rules are simple; a player writes down the first and last letters of a word for an animal, and the other player guesses the letters in between.
In other sources the game is called "Gallows", "The Game of Hangin'", or "Hanger".
Strategy
In the English language, the 12 most commonly occurring letters are, in descending order: e-t-a-o-i-n-s-h-r-d-l-u. This and other letter-frequency lists are used by the guessing player to increase the odds when it is their turn to guess.
On the other hand, the same lists can be used by the hangman (the non-guessing player) to stump his/her opponent by choosing a difficult word to guess (e.g. rhythm) or one that contains rare letters (e.g. quartz).
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Welcome Visitors!
Welcome to FreeHangman.com, home of the ultimate source of online Hangman games on the internet!
We currently have over 100 different word categories, with over 50 different words each. This site
keep you entertained for hours, great for when you are bored and have nothing better to do.
How does Hangman work? Usually with 2 players, one player thinks up a word or phrase and draws blanks
for the number of letters in the word or phrase. It's the other player's job to guess the word or phrase
before the man is hanged. Very simple.
On this site, however, we choose the words. Navigate yourself over to the list of categories page and choose
a category. Start guessing letters! There is strategy on the right with the most commonly used letters
in the English language.