Halloween hangman words
83 Halloween words, each with a clue and a difficulty score computed from its spelling. 26 easy, 35 medium, 22 hard.
Average score
4.6
Across all 83 words
Hardest
mummy
Scores 10.2
Easiest
eerie
Scores -4.6
Halloween has the best vocabulary of any seasonal list, because the words were chosen over centuries to sound unsettling. Macabre, spectre and poltergeist all carry letter patterns that ordinary English does not.
That makes this the hardest of the seasonal categories by a clear margin. If you are playing with young children, filter to easy and leave the longer atmosphere words for the adults.
The trap here is the short ones. Bats, owl and hood look harmless and score badly for the guesser, because a standard opening of vowels barely touches them.
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Easy Halloween words26
The usual opening guesses cover most of it, so it tends to fall quickly.
| Word | Clue | Letters | Score | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| autumn | Leaves down, nights drawing in | 6 / 5 distinct | 3.5 | Easy |
| bats | Leaving the belfry at dusk | 4 / 4 distinct | 3.5 | Easy |
| caramel | What sugar becomes when cooked just far enough | 7 / 6 distinct | 3.4 | Easy |
| chocolate | The bit that gets traded afterwards | 9 / 7 distinct | 3.2 | Easy |
| disguise | Good enough that nobody knows you | 8 / 6 distinct | 2.0 | Easy |
| eerie | Strange in a way you cannot place | 5 / 3 distinct | -4.6 | Easy |
| familiar | The witch's animal companion | 8 / 6 distinct | 2.0 | Easy |
| frankenstein | The doctor, not the monster | 12 / 9 distinct | 1.9 | Easy |
| gruesome | Too much detail, and all of it unpleasant | 8 / 7 distinct | 2.4 | Easy |
| hood | Up, and casting a shadow | 4 / 3 distinct | 3.3 | Easy |
| lantern | A light with a handle, or a hollowed gourd | 7 / 6 distinct | 1.7 | Easy |
| macabre | Preoccupied with death, and enjoying it | 7 / 6 distinct | 3.4 | Easy |
| monster | The general term for all of it | 7 / 7 distinct | 2.1 | Easy |
| october | The month it all builds up to | 7 / 6 distinct | 2.0 | Easy |
| poltergeist | The one that throws things | 11 / 9 distinct | 2.3 | Easy |
| potion | Brewed, and never labelled clearly | 6 / 5 distinct | 0.2 | Easy |
| raven | Nevermore, apparently | 5 / 5 distinct | 3.0 | Easy |
| ritual | Done in a particular order for a reason | 6 / 6 distinct | 2.3 | Easy |
| sinister | Something is wrong here | 8 / 6 distinct | -0.8 | Easy |
| skeleton | The frame, without the rest | 8 / 7 distinct | 3.0 | Easy |
| spectre | Same idea, spelled to be difficult | 7 / 6 distinct | 3.1 | Easy |
| superstition | The ladder you walk around anyway | 12 / 9 distinct | 0.6 | Easy |
| tarantula | Large, hairy, and less dangerous than it looks | 9 / 6 distinct | 0.7 | Easy |
| toffee | Sticky, and dangerous for fillings | 6 / 4 distinct | 1.3 | Easy |
| tombstone | Carved, and standing up | 9 / 7 distinct | 1.9 | Easy |
| treat | The alternative to the trick | 5 / 4 distinct | -0.8 | Easy |
Medium Halloween words35
You will get a foothold, then have to work out the rest properly.
| Word | Clue | Letters | Score | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| broomstick | Cleaning tool with an alternative use | 10 / 9 distinct | 5.0 | Medium |
| candlelight | The only lighting anybody uses tonight | 11 / 10 distinct | 6.0 | Medium |
| cape | Fastened at the neck and entirely impractical | 4 / 4 distinct | 4.0 | Medium |
| cauldron | Bubbling, and nothing good is in it | 8 / 8 distinct | 5.0 | Medium |
| corn maze | Easy to enter, less easy to leave | 8 / 8 distinct | 3.9 | Medium |
| costume | Somebody else, for one evening | 7 / 7 distinct | 3.9 | Medium |
| coven | A group of witches | 5 / 5 distinct | 5.0 | Medium |
| creak | The floorboard, upstairs, when nobody is up there | 5 / 5 distinct | 5.0 | Medium |
| creepy | Unsettling rather than terrifying | 6 / 5 distinct | 4.8 | Medium |
| curse | Put on somebody, and hard to lift | 5 / 5 distinct | 3.8 | Medium |
| doorbell | Rung far more than usual tonight | 8 / 6 distinct | 4.3 | Medium |
| dracula | The count from the novel | 7 / 6 distinct | 4.9 | Medium |
| fangs | Two of them, and pointed | 5 / 5 distinct | 5.4 | Medium |
| ghost | White sheet, two holes, done | 5 / 5 distinct | 5.4 | Medium |
| goblin | Small, greedy and troublesome | 6 / 6 distinct | 5.3 | Medium |
| graveyard | Quiet, and very busy in stories | 9 / 7 distinct | 5.0 | Medium |
| harvest | The reason the festival exists at all | 7 / 7 distinct | 4.4 | Medium |
| haunt | To keep coming back to one place | 5 / 5 distinct | 3.8 | Medium |
| haunted | Something else is already living there | 7 / 7 distinct | 3.9 | Medium |
| legend | A story told often enough to be believed | 6 / 5 distinct | 4.8 | Medium |
| midnight | The hour everything is supposed to happen | 8 / 7 distinct | 5.6 | Medium |
| moonlight | What the werewolf is waiting for | 9 / 8 distinct | 4.4 | Medium |
| mystery | Nobody has explained it yet | 7 / 6 distinct | 5.7 | Medium |
| neighbour | The one who does the house up properly | 9 / 9 distinct | 3.9 | Medium |
| phantom | The more theatrical kind of ghost | 7 / 7 distinct | 5.0 | Medium |
| scarecrow | Stuffed, and frightening the wrong things | 9 / 7 distinct | 3.9 | Medium |
| scream | Longer, and everyone heard it | 6 / 6 distinct | 3.7 | Medium |
| shadow | Follows you and cannot be shaken | 6 / 6 distinct | 6.3 | Medium |
| shriek | Short, high, and involuntary | 6 / 6 distinct | 4.7 | Medium |
| spider | Eight legs and a plan | 6 / 6 distinct | 3.7 | Medium |
| spooky | Just frightening enough to enjoy | 6 / 5 distinct | 6.0 | Medium |
| vampire | Avoids garlic and daylight | 7 / 7 distinct | 4.7 | Medium |
| werewolf | Human until the moon is full | 8 / 6 distinct | 5.3 | Medium |
| whisper | Heard, but not from anyone | 7 / 7 distinct | 5.9 | Medium |
| zombie | Slow, persistent and hungry | 6 / 6 distinct | 5.0 | Medium |
Hard Halloween words22
Rare letters, few vowels, or almost no repetition for a guesser to lean on.
| Word | Clue | Letters | Score | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| black cat | Crossing your path, traditionally | 8 / 6 distinct | 6.9 | Hard |
| black magic | The kind with consequences | 10 / 8 distinct | 7.2 | Hard |
| bucket | What the sweets go in | 6 / 6 distinct | 8.0 | Hard |
| cackle | The witch's laugh, specifically | 6 / 5 distinct | 7.7 | Hard |
| candy | The entire point, if you are eight | 5 / 5 distinct | 7.4 | Hard |
| cloak | Longer than a cape, and with a hood | 5 / 5 distinct | 7.0 | Hard |
| cobweb | The web after the spider left | 6 / 5 distinct | 7.7 | Hard |
| crow | In a group they are called a murder | 4 / 4 distinct | 7.5 | Hard |
| draught | The cold air with no obvious source | 7 / 7 distinct | 6.4 | Hard |
| flicker | What the candle does before it goes out | 7 / 7 distinct | 7.3 | Hard |
| haystack | Where the needle is | 8 / 7 distinct | 6.5 | Hard |
| howl | The wolf, at the moon | 4 / 4 distinct | 10.0 | Hard |
| lurk | Waiting somewhere you cannot see | 4 / 4 distinct | 10.0 | Hard |
| makeup | Doing the work the mask does not | 6 / 6 distinct | 6.7 | Hard |
| mask | Covers the face and changes the voice | 4 / 4 distinct | 7.5 | Hard |
| mummy | Wrapped, and considerably older than you | 5 / 3 distinct | 10.2 | Hard |
| owl | Silent, and watching | 3 / 3 distinct | 9.0 | Hard |
| pumpkin | Carved, lit, and grinning | 7 / 6 distinct | 8.4 | Hard |
| spell | Said out loud, with a wand optional | 5 / 4 distinct | 6.8 | Hard |
| trick | The alternative to the treat | 5 / 5 distinct | 6.6 | Hard |
| witch | Broomstick, cauldron and pointed hat | 5 / 5 distinct | 8.6 | Hard |
| wizard | The other one, usually with a beard | 6 / 6 distinct | 7.3 | Hard |
Questions
What are good Halloween words for hangman?
The ones that survive a normal opening. A guesser starts with E, A, R and the other common letters, so a good word is one those letters barely touch. On this page that is the score: 83 Halloween words are listed and 22 of them rate hard.
How many Halloween words are on this list?
83, deduplicated, each with a clue and a computed difficulty score. They split into 26 easy, 35 medium and 22 hard.
What is the hardest word in this category?
MUMMY, at 10.2. The easiest is EERIE at -4.6. Both numbers come from the same formula, which is published in full at hangmanwords.net/how-difficulty-is-scored/.
Can I play these words rather than read them?
Yes. The play link on this page loads a game that draws only from this halloween list, so every word you get is one of the 83 below.