How to play
- A word is hidden behind the boxes. The category, like Animals or Food, is a clue.
- Tap a letter. If it’s in the word, it shows up in every box where it belongs.
- If it isn’t, one balloon pops. Find the whole word before the balloons run out.
- If they do, the adder floats down to the grass, safe and sound, and you see the word. Then try the next one.
A round has ten words, and each word you find earns a star. Starter words have 3 or 4 letters and 8 balloons. Explorer words have 4 to 6 letters and 6 balloons.
Stuck? Press Show a letter, once for each word: one of the missing letters appears, and no balloon pops. When a word is over, Say the word reads it out loud, if this device has a voice of its own for it.
The letter buttons are in ABC order. Children who know a keyboard can switch them to QWERTY, and Capital letters shows the word and the buttons in capitals.
For parents and teachers
Hangman practises letter recognition and spelling. To find a word, a child thinks about which letters it is likely to have, sees where each letter goes, and reads the finished word. Guessing the vowels first, a, e, i, o and u, is a good habit to encourage: almost every word has one.
A guide to the two sets of words: Starter, ages 5 to 6, has short words of three or four letters, like cat, sun and cake, and 8 balloons. Explorer, ages 7 to 8, has words of four to six letters, like rabbit, pencil and bridge, and 6 balloons. Every word is an everyday thing a child can picture, from seven topics: animals, food, home, school, nature, colors and transport. We chose and checked the list ourselves: no names, no plurals, and nothing scary or rude.
The letters are lowercase by default, as in early reading books. Capital letters and a QWERTY layout for the buttons are in the settings under the game.
Why balloons?
The classic game draws a figure on a gallows, which isn’t a picture for young children. Here, each wrong letter pops one of the balloons holding up the adder. When the last one pops, the adder floats gently down to the grass, safe and sound, and the game shows the word.
Questions
What happens when the balloons run out?
Nothing bad: the word appears, with the letters that were missing shown in grey, and the next word starts when your child is ready. Every word found earns a star, and a round has ten words.
What does Show a letter do?
It fills in one of the missing letters, everywhere it appears in the word, without popping a balloon. It works once for each word, and the statistics count how often it was used.
Can it read the word out loud?
Yes, when the device has its own voice for it: Say the word appears at the end of each word. It only uses voices that work on the device itself, so the word is never sent to an online speech service. On a device without one, the button doesn’t appear.
Is it safe for children?
Hangman has no ads, no chat, no sign-up and no tracking. Nothing your child does is sent anywhere: the round in progress and the statistics are kept only in this browser.
Does it work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Tap the letter buttons; they are big enough for small fingers. On a computer, type the letters on the keyboard.
Keyboard
| A to Z | Try that letter |
|---|---|
| Tab, then Enter | Choose a letter button, or go to the next word |
More to play
- Block Adder: Drop number blocks and make 10. Pairs like 3 and 7 disappear.
- Tell the Time: Read the clock and set the hands: o’clock, half past, quarter to and every minute.
- All kids games