Phrases and sentences for the game everyone already knows

What makes a hangman phrase good

Three things, and they are all about the guesser. A good phrase is one the whole room could plausibly know, so familiar sayings beat clever inventions. It is two to six words long, so there are enough letters to work with and not so many that the drawing space runs out. And its difficulty comes from letter economy rather than obscurity: the hardest fair phrases are ordinary words spelled uncommonly, like jazz rhythm, not rare words nobody has met.

Each list on this site is graded with exactly that in mind, and the trickiest entries come with a note explaining why they defeat people, so you can pick your level of mischief deliberately. Start with the best hangman phrases if you want the reliable middle, go funny for a group that wants to laugh, or go hard if someone at the table has been winning too often.