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How to Play Hangman

One player secretly chooses a word or phrase and draws a blank for each letter. The others guess letters one at a time: correct letters are written into every blank where they appear, and each wrong letter adds one part to the hangman drawing. The guessers win by completing the phrase before the drawing is finished, usually within six wrong guesses.

Setup

The setter picks a word or phrase and tells the guessers the category if you play with categories, which is kinder and recommended. Any list on this site works as a source: start with the best phrases for a mixed group.
The setter draws one short line per letter, grouped by word, so a two-word phrase shows as two clusters of blanks with a clear gap. Punctuation, if any, is written in for free.
Agree the wrong-guess limit out loud. Six is standard; eight is friendlier.

Playing a round

A guesser calls out one letter.
If the letter is in the phrase, the setter writes it into every blank where it occurs. One guess reveals every copy of that letter at once.
If it is not, the setter adds one part to the drawing and notes the dead letter where everyone can see it.
Guessers may attempt the whole phrase at any point. A wrong full guess costs one drawing part, the same as a wrong letter, under the most common rule.
The round ends when the phrase is complete, or the drawing is: head, body, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg in the six-part version.

Setting fairly

The setter's craft is choosing something the guessers could plausibly get. A fair phrase is one every player has heard, built from ordinary words, in a category the table knows about. Difficulty should come from spelling economy, short words and rare letters, rather than from obscurity. A phrase nobody could ever have known is not a hard round, it is a skipped one with extra steps.

Variations worth knowing

Gentler drawings. Classrooms and families often draw a flower losing petals, a melting snowman, or a spider gaining legs instead of the traditional figure. Same tension, friendlier picture, and the leg-count sets the guess limit naturally.
Category rounds. The setter announces animals, food, or sayings before the round. This converts fishing into deduction and is the single best change for younger players.
Team play. Two teams alternate guesses against one setter. Suits full sentences, which give teams enough material to argue strategy over.
Vowels for free. All vowels are revealed before guessing starts. Keeps early readers in the game; see the kids list for where this shines.
Consonants only. The reverse handicap for strong players guessing a sentence: vowels may not be guessed at all, only deduced.

Common questions

How many wrong guesses do you get in hangman?

Six is the common standard, matching a drawing of head, body, two arms and two legs. Many groups play eight to ten by adding facial features or the gallows itself. Agree the number before the round starts; changing it mid-game is the classic argument.

Do spaces and punctuation count in hangman?

No. Spaces between words are shown from the start, and punctuation like apostrophes is revealed for free. Only the letters A to Z are guessed. This is why phrases are friendlier than single words: the word boundaries are free information.

Can the same letter be guessed twice?

There is never a reason to: a guessed letter is either in the phrase, where every occurrence is revealed at once, or it is not. Keep a visible list of used letters so nobody wastes a turn by accident.

What happens if the setter spells the word wrong?

House rules vary, but the fairest one is that a misspelled phrase is a dead round: no win, no loss, next setter. The setter's job carries the spelling responsibility, which is also what makes setting good practice for students.

Is hangman a two player game?

It works from two players upward. With two, one sets and one guesses, then swap. With a group, either everyone guesses in turn against one setter, or two teams alternate guesses, which suits longer phrases and sentences.