Make your own hangman
Any word or phrase becomes a game with a link. The word is encoded into the link rather than stored on a server, so nothing you set is ever sent to us.
Letters and spaces only. Three to forty characters.
Choosing a word that is actually hard
The instinct is to pick something obscure. It rarely works, because obscurity is not what defeats a guesser. What defeats a guesser is a word the opening letters do not touch: no E, no A, no R, few vowels, and no repeated letters to hand over several positions at once.
That is why the score appears as you type. It reads the same four properties the rest of this site is built on, so you can see before you send it whether your word is genuinely difficult or merely unusual. Rhythm and jazz score high. Encyclopedia does not.
If you want ideas rather than a formula, the hard words list is sorted by exactly this score, and the hardest words on the site shows what the top of that list looks like.
A clue is not a weakness
A game where the guesser has no route in is not a game, it is a wait. One short clue keeps them engaged without giving the word away, and it is the difference between a round people finish and a round people abandon.
Questions
How do I make my own hangman game?
Type a word or a phrase, add a clue if you want to, and press the button. You get a link. Anyone who opens it plays your word with six guesses, and the answer is not visible in the address bar.
Where is my word stored?
Nowhere. It is encoded into the link itself, so it travels with the message you send rather than sitting in a database. That also means we cannot see it and cannot recover it if you lose the link.
Can I use a phrase with spaces?
Yes. Spaces are kept and shown as a gap between word groups, which is a real clue for the guesser, so phrases play differently from single words.
Is there a two player mode on one device?
Set the word, then hand the phone over without opening the link yourself. The person guessing sees only the blanks. That is the whole mechanic and it needs nothing extra.