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Hangman is a pencil and paper guessing game for two players. One player thinks of a word and the other tries to guess it by suggesting letters.

The word to guess is represented by a row of dashes, giving the number of letters. If the guessing player suggests a letter which occurs in the word, the other player writes it in all its correct positions. If the suggested letter does not occur in the word, the other player draws one element of the hangman diagram. The game is over when:

* the guessing player completes the word, or guesses the whole word correctly

• the other player completes the diagram:

 +----+
 |    |
 |    O
 |   /|\
 |   / \
-+-

-a-g-a-

The exact nature of the diagram differs; some players draw the gallows part before play and draw parts of the man's body (traditionally the head, then torso, then the left arm, then the right arm, then the left then right legs). Some players begin with no diagram at all, and begin by drawing the parts of the gallows, effectively giving the guessing players more chances.

Some modifications to game play, such as "'buying' a vowel" result in the television game show Wheel of Fortune, created by Merv Griffin.

History

"The origins of Hangman are obscure, but it seems to have arisen in Victorian times," says Tony Augarde, author of "The Oxford Guide to Word Games" (Oxford University Press).

The game is mentioned in Alice Bertha Gomme's "Traditional Games" in 1894 under the name "Birds, Beasts and Fishes." The rules are simple. A player writes down the first and last letters of a word for an animal, and the other player guesses the letters in between.

In other sources the game is called "Gallows" or "The Game of Hanging".

Strategy

In the English language, the 12 most commonly occurring letters are, in descending order: e-t-a-o-i-n-s-h-r-d-l-u. This and other letter-frequency lists are used by the guessing player to increase the odds when forced to guess.

On the other hand, the same lists can be used by the hangman (the non-guessing player) to stump his/her opponent.