Household hangman
83 household objects words, 6 wrong guesses, and a difficulty rating shown at the end of every round.
Chalking the board…
Playing this list
Every word here is something within thirty feet of most players, which makes it the gentlest category for a mixed group and the best one for ESL beginners. Nobody is ever completely stuck.
Compounds do most of the work. Once a guesser sees -board, -case or -light at the end they can often finish the word from two letters, so this list plays much faster than the word lengths suggest.
For difficulty, the cleaning cupboard is where to look. Bleach, sponge and duster are short and awkward, and hoover hides a doubled letter that people forget to check for.
The full list, with every clue and score, is on the household word list. If you want to set a word for somebody else instead, the create page turns any word into a shareable game.
What this list does to a guesser
Measured across all 83 words, this list runs 0.7 points harder than the site average. The eight letters most people open with — E, T, A, O, I, N, S, R — uncover about 57% of a typical household objects word, and the single most productive opening letter here is E, which appears 66 times. The least useful of the eight is N at 26 appearances, so spending an early guess on it in this category is usually wasted.
One word in this list contain none of those eight letters at all — mug. Those are the rounds that end early, because a standard opening draws the whole figure before a single letter lands.
Rare letters do turn up: W, K, X, V and others appear across the list, and a word carrying one is usually the one that beats you. How the rating weighs that is set out on how difficulty is scored.
- mug · 10.3 · 3 letters · 0% common cover
- whisk · 9.8 · 5 letters · 40% common cover
- plumbing · 8.5 · 8 letters · 25% common cover
- toaster · -0.9 · 7 letters · 100% common cover
- radiator · -0.5 · 8 letters · 88% common cover
- staircase · -0.1 · 9 letters · 89% common cover
Questions
How do you play household hangman?
Guess a letter. If it appears in the word it fills in every position it occupies; if not, another part of the figure is drawn. You get 6 wrong guesses. The clue button is there if you want it and costs nothing.
How many words are in this game?
83, drawn from the household list. 29 rate easy, 32 medium and 22 hard, and the rating for each word is shown once the round ends.
Is it free, and do I need an account?
It is free and there is no account. The game runs in your browser and your streak is stored on your own device, so nothing is sent to a server.