Phrases hangman
86 phrases and idioms words, 6 wrong guesses, and a difficulty rating shown at the end of every round.
Chalking the board…
Playing this list
Phrases play by different rules. The word breaks are visible from the start, so a guesser can see they are looking at three words of four, two and five letters before they guess anything at all.
That makes short function words the way in. THE, A, OF and TO appear constantly, and a guesser who spots a two-letter gap and tries O and F will often break the whole phrase open in one move.
Because of that, a good hangman phrase is one where the content words carry the difficulty and the function words are few. Idioms with a single long unusual word in the middle play best.
The full list, with every clue and score, is on the phrases 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 86 words, this list runs 0.8 points easier than the site average. The eight letters most people open with — E, T, A, O, I, N, S, R — uncover about 63% of a typical phrases and idioms word, and the single most productive opening letter here is E, which appears 183 times. The least useful of the eight is S at 70 appearances, so spending an early guess on it in this category is usually wasted.
Every word here contains at least one of those eight letters, which is why this category rarely produces a round that collapses in the first three guesses.
Rare letters do turn up: W, K, V, J 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.
- rule of thumb · 5.0 · 11 letters · 36% common cover
- bend over backwards · 4.8 · 17 letters · 53% common cover
- saved by the bell · 4.4 · 14 letters · 43% common cover
- see eye to eye · -3.7 · 11 letters · 82% common cover
- no pain no gain · -2.6 · 12 letters · 83% common cover
- once in a blue moon · -0.9 · 15 letters · 67% common cover
Questions
How do you play phrases 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?
86, drawn from the phrases list. 82 rate easy, 4 medium and 0 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.