US States hangman
50 US states words, 6 wrong guesses, and a difficulty rating shown at the end of every round.
Chalking the board…
Playing this list
State names split into two groups and it matters which one you draw. The short ones adapted long ago, like Ohio, Utah and Iowa, are vowel-heavy and fall in two or three guesses. The transliterated and compound ones do not.
Mississippi is the famous one and it is genuinely easier than it looks, because four of its letters are the same and one correct guess reveals four positions at once. Repetition helps the guesser more than length hurts them.
The real difficulty sits in Kentucky, Kansas and Alaska, where a K arrives early in the word and almost nobody guesses K early. This list is also a geography lesson that hides itself, which is why it works in a classroom.
The full list, with every clue and score, is on the us states 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 50 words, this list runs 1.3 points easier than the site average. The eight letters most people open with — E, T, A, O, I, N, S, R — uncover about 69% of a typical US states word, and the single most productive opening letter here is A, which appears 61 times. The least useful of the eight is T at 19 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, X 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.
- kentucky · 7.7 · 8 letters · 38% common cover
- wyoming · 7.3 · 7 letters · 43% common cover
- new york · 6.1 · 7 letters · 57% common cover
- tennessee · -2.2 · 9 letters · 100% common cover
- indiana · -1.4 · 7 letters · 86% common cover
- ohio · -1.3 · 4 letters · 75% common cover
Questions
How do you play us states 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?
50, drawn from the us states list. 37 rate easy, 11 medium and 2 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.