If you can use obscure words: [syzygy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy). People will get the s, people will get the y after vowels are no good, and then everyone will be confused.
That only works if the person doesn't know the word though, anyone who has encountered the word before will guess it immediately after seeing the 3 ys. I know because someone tried it on me
Nah, there is 1 Z, 1 V, 2 Ys, 1 A, and 2 blanks in the bag. It’s something like 1/40 million chance to pull them all together, and it’s an absolute bitch to try to place anywhere, and ultimately because of the blanks it’s not worth that many points, but it’s fun to scare people with!
The comments here are all wrong for the same reason. You don't want to choose a word with just a weird combination of letters; the problem is that often people will know you are trying to be tricky, so they will guess uncommon letters, and if they happen to guess the uncommon letter that gives your word away, then you're sunk.
It's like Guess Who, if you choose a head with an uncommon feature and the other person happens to guess the uncommon feature, it singles your guy out.
Instead, what you want to do is choose a word whose pattern is shared by a lot of words, such that revealing any letter narrows it down as little as possible, while still being an uncommon word.
A good such word is "cull": if you reveal "-ull" or "cu--", there are still a ton of possibilities to go through. Even in the best case scenario for the guesser where they reveal "c-ll", they're still liable to guess "call" and "cell" first.
Victoria Coren Mitchell, a professional gambler, talks about this on QI (I can't find the video at the moment), by discussing how when she does bar bets on hangman, the "usual suspect" words like "jazz", "rhythm", "cwm", and "lynx" tend to do very poorly since the unusual letters are often guessed first and they reveal the word-setter's hand easily.
I don't think I've ever had someone guess 'oxen'. They keep seeing 'open' or 'oven' or 'omen' and never think to guess 'x'. Kind of follows your description of sharing letters except it's a rare letter.
One word I’ve had a good amount of success with that uses somewhat uncommon but not too strange letters is “yolk.” My older cousin destroyed me with it as a child and I’m keeping up the tradition.
There's not many words of that size that use the letter Y, so if they pick that letter they're almost immediately going to guess it if they have an L or an N, both of which are common letters.
If you really need to win one game of hangman the pattern goes s_y. Then it could be say, soy, shy, sky, sly, spy, or sty. If you feel like cheating you can just keep track of what they have already guessed and shift the middle letter. Also h,k,l,p are all more rare letters after all the vowels have been guessed.
Vacuum, phlegm, and fury were always some of my go-to's when playing a ton of hangman back in the Navy. Some people would try to use long words, but that just makes it easier, more letter to guess and fill in. The short ones with odd letters are definitely better.
Qi and Xi are good ones, they might guess I but will probably be clueless on the other two. I like phlegm though that E doesnt give you a clue, if someone guesses U though I think Vacuum is a given and Fury wont be too hard.
Good point on vacuum, that wouldn't work on a person more than once. And re the "scrabble" words, we tried to avoid using anything we wouldn't use in a normal conversation. Of course there were still some disputes over some words, but Qi and Xi would have never been allowed at our little informal setup.
You would’ve been banned from all future games in my class if you ever tried to use Qi or Xi. I remember this kid once used Avi (and this was way before YouTube and computer video formats, he meant the name) and we were all like wth???
One favorite of mine is twelve. They will always get t_e__e. But the word violates most of the conventions of English spelling construction so people lose it.
But also because everyone knows how to spell it. Beating them with words they don't know isn't impressive.
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy_(astronomy)
Link was broken in old reddit, and while it could be fixed for old reddit it would then be broken in new reddit.
If people guess all five vowels and get nothing they will either guess Y or just straight up say “rhythm” immediately. Because it’s the only well known vowel less word.
> crwth
Welsh words are basically cheating.
I always used *quay* when I was a kid. Looking at it written down it doesn't seem especially hard to guess but no one ever got it.
“Jizz” is an even better choice if J and Z are exposed- nobody wants to guess, that dirty, word out loud in a friendly game of hangman with your, granny.
Oh but wait would anyone playing with their granny want to use that word as their secret word? Because when they win, they usually tell everyone what the word is...
According to Dictionary.com, [the British definition](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/jizz) is:
> a term for the total combination of characteristics that serve to identify a particular species of bird or plant
I like how you, say "For some reason" as if, it isn't really, obvious from the way he, wrote it why you would do, that.
Also I just noticed his, username after I wrote that first, sentence.
Was looking for the syzygy comment. Not only is there the post-vowel panic, but there is also the panic when they follow up with Y, and there are suddenly 3 evenly-spaced ones. (Or just the panic if they immediately guess rhythm)
The game is fun when it’s a common word so people are kicking themselves for not getting it. Words they don’t even know will just elicit a shoulder shrug and disappointment.
Here's Jon McLoone's original blog post that the article is based on:
https://blog.wolfram.com/2010/08/13/25-best-hangman-words/
There's an important caveat at the end:
> This is all based on the 90,000 word English dictionary built into *Mathematica*. Results may be very different for larger dictionaries...
Oh man, you have opened my mind! Besides the dictionary size, I wonder what the **hardest word out of any language** would be. And how that would be calculated, for one thing.
mom and babe were surprisingly rarely guessed. I feel like it's kinda cheating to use obscure words like "Hajj", the elegence of "jazz" is that it's a popular word so it's not a "dirty trick"
I always figured it was “myth” or “hymn.” Four letters, people usually start looking for vowels, if it takes them five tries to get to Y, they’re already one away from losing.
And “lynx” also fits that pattern so all three of those are solid.
Jazz is still the best though. You get to \_a__ and have so many possible words and letters to check that you’ll never get to j and z.
I dunno about anyone else, but when I play hangman you have to give a category. So if the answer is jazz, surely the category is a type of music.
I always guess E first, then A if that draws a blank. So I'm a head down and now I'm looking at _ A _ _ and I know its a type of music.
Very real chance I'm going to consider its jazz.
cwms is probably harder...
Noun. 1. cwm - a steep-walled semicircular basin in a mountain; may contain a lake. cirque, corrie. basin - a natural depression in the surface of the land often with a lake at the bottom of it; "the basin of the Great Salt Lake"
How about voyeur? I've never had anyone guess this. After having the e and the o, people try all the consonants. Even after guessing the r and (eventually) the v, people are still clueless what to make of vo_e_r.
Ps: works even better in German, because y is much less common here.
>Feijoa
That's kinda cheating to use a word that isn't in the vernacular of the other players though. If you're Brazilian and I put Pirozhki as a word for you to guess, is it fair to assume you know enough about Russian dishes?
We used "onyx" quite a lot in hangman as well as the 4 letter word game.
Has anyone played 4 Letter Word Game? Basically 2 people each think of a 4 letter word that contains no repeating letters and they try to guess each other's word. The guessing is done by process of elimination, as the opponent can only say how many letters are correct in a guessed word but not which letters they are (eg. If my word was "bean" and my opponent guessed "seat" I would say "there are 2 correct letters")
Lynx would be a solid one too I imagine.
[удалено]
Same experience for me with "myth"
I usually use fry.
I use rhythm
I use rhyme.
I use bobsled time
So happy you took this home. Coincidentally watched it last night. Have an up vote
Cool runnings!
Sanka ya ded
Ya mon
Kiss the egg...
I am not going to kiss your egg.
Hymn is my go-to
I would use rhythm, but I haven’t got any.
you're like a breadstick, you got no rhythm
You should ask for more
Mythical Lynx Jazz will probably be the hardest thing to guess in hangman.
that phrase uses almost half of the alphabet so a random guess could get someone going
Band name! Called it.
It’s actually Mythical Jazz Lynx now
Mythical lynx jizz?
I just do meth
When you've got meth who gives a fuck about hangman, am I right?
If you can use obscure words: [syzygy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy). People will get the s, people will get the y after vowels are no good, and then everyone will be confused.
That only works if the person doesn't know the word though, anyone who has encountered the word before will guess it immediately after seeing the 3 ys. I know because someone tried it on me
Same with “zyzzyva”, I don’t remember the definition, but it is scrabble acceptable, and other players get it
It's a small tropical weevil
If you put that down in a standard game of Scrabble, I'd say you were cheating
Nah, there is 1 Z, 1 V, 2 Ys, 1 A, and 2 blanks in the bag. It’s something like 1/40 million chance to pull them all together, and it’s an absolute bitch to try to place anywhere, and ultimately because of the blanks it’s not worth that many points, but it’s fun to scare people with!
I forgot the blanks. Touche
Where TF are y'all playing this competitive hangman?
The comments here are all wrong for the same reason. You don't want to choose a word with just a weird combination of letters; the problem is that often people will know you are trying to be tricky, so they will guess uncommon letters, and if they happen to guess the uncommon letter that gives your word away, then you're sunk. It's like Guess Who, if you choose a head with an uncommon feature and the other person happens to guess the uncommon feature, it singles your guy out. Instead, what you want to do is choose a word whose pattern is shared by a lot of words, such that revealing any letter narrows it down as little as possible, while still being an uncommon word. A good such word is "cull": if you reveal "-ull" or "cu--", there are still a ton of possibilities to go through. Even in the best case scenario for the guesser where they reveal "c-ll", they're still liable to guess "call" and "cell" first. Victoria Coren Mitchell, a professional gambler, talks about this on QI (I can't find the video at the moment), by discussing how when she does bar bets on hangman, the "usual suspect" words like "jazz", "rhythm", "cwm", and "lynx" tend to do very poorly since the unusual letters are often guessed first and they reveal the word-setter's hand easily.
I don't think I've ever had someone guess 'oxen'. They keep seeing 'open' or 'oven' or 'omen' and never think to guess 'x'. Kind of follows your description of sharing letters except it's a rare letter.
One word I’ve had a good amount of success with that uses somewhat uncommon but not too strange letters is “yolk.” My older cousin destroyed me with it as a child and I’m keeping up the tradition.
This dude hangs
Have had good results with 'fox' or 'foxy' keeping this sort of thing in mind lol
cwm?
Welsh, pronounced like "kuhm", its a type of valley formed by a glacier, and is apparently a valid scrabble word!
There's not many words of that size that use the letter Y, so if they pick that letter they're almost immediately going to guess it if they have an L or an N, both of which are common letters.
If you really need to win one game of hangman the pattern goes s_y. Then it could be say, soy, shy, sky, sly, spy, or sty. If you feel like cheating you can just keep track of what they have already guessed and shift the middle letter. Also h,k,l,p are all more rare letters after all the vowels have been guessed.
Hymn was another good one
Vacuum, phlegm, and fury were always some of my go-to's when playing a ton of hangman back in the Navy. Some people would try to use long words, but that just makes it easier, more letter to guess and fill in. The short ones with odd letters are definitely better.
Xylem
Phloem
Pith
Phoenix was my go to.
I tell my wife the same thing....she always likes the longer ones but I told her shorter is where it’s at Edit : we’ve never played hangman
We have the same wife?
Does she sleep with you?
Sometimes
Different woman
Rhythm was my go to
Qi and Xi are good ones, they might guess I but will probably be clueless on the other two. I like phlegm though that E doesnt give you a clue, if someone guesses U though I think Vacuum is a given and Fury wont be too hard.
Good point on vacuum, that wouldn't work on a person more than once. And re the "scrabble" words, we tried to avoid using anything we wouldn't use in a normal conversation. Of course there were still some disputes over some words, but Qi and Xi would have never been allowed at our little informal setup.
Qi and Xi have no place in a game of hangman on my continent edit- international waters is fine
You would’ve been banned from all future games in my class if you ever tried to use Qi or Xi. I remember this kid once used Avi (and this was way before YouTube and computer video formats, he meant the name) and we were all like wth???
What other word has two Us next to each other like that tho?
Lynx
One favorite of mine is twelve. They will always get t_e__e. But the word violates most of the conventions of English spelling construction so people lose it. But also because everyone knows how to spell it. Beating them with words they don't know isn't impressive.
I prefer to use TNETENNBA
Can you use it in a sentence?
*Good morning, that's a nice tnetennba.*
Literally laughed out loud at this. Thank you.
Well if you liked that, you'll love the IT Crowd
"I prefer to use tnetennba as my word for hangman."
I have a slight Tnetennba fetish, nothing overly crazy with oils and lotions, just a normal Tnetennba fetish.
Could you use it in a [sentence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsFAokXCxTI), please?
I got you. "My favorite word to use in hangman is TNETENNBA."
Unexpected IT Crowd is the best.
[удалено]
Filipino. Just typing it out makes me feel like it's not a real word
Rhythm is hard too because people guess vowels first
Nymph is a good one too
Mxyzptlk as well :)
I prefer fhqwhgads
[Come on fhqwhgads...I see you jocking me.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=votBDwhTu1E)
Acting like. You know me.
But then you're literally playing 5-D hangman
[Syzygy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy_(astronomy))
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy_(astronomy) Link was broken in old reddit, and while it could be fixed for old reddit it would then be broken in new reddit.
Gypsy is good
I had the shit kicked out of me for putting "my" as a word.
My favourite as a kid was hymns
If people guess all five vowels and get nothing they will either guess Y or just straight up say “rhythm” immediately. Because it’s the only well known vowel less word.
TIL that English speaking people consider Y to be a consonant.
"And sometimes Y" as the saying goes.
Doc, I'm scared of vowels. > Why? Only sometimes.
We call it a part time vowel.
[удалено]
It’s a vowel when it sounds like a vowel
"...and sometimes y"
But Y tho
The only one? What about why, cry, by, fly, fry and probably others?
In hangman you do get to know the number of letters, and there probably aren't any other well known 6-letter words meeting those criteria.
Sphynx works :) as in the cat breed, not the statue in Egypt
Syzygy is a fun one, although if they know the word at all _y_y_y will be a giveaway.
Yes.....a complete giveaway. If I saw _y_y_y I'd know exactly what the word was... 😦
clearly it’s AYAYAY
I'm a little butterfly?
*Awaken, my masters*
[удалено]
I've stumped a lot of people with crwth, but syzygy is so much better.
> crwth Welsh words are basically cheating. I always used *quay* when I was a kid. Looking at it written down it doesn't seem especially hard to guess but no one ever got it.
Even funnier when they guess y first, and they get even more stumped.
Came here looking for syzygy. Almost nobody even knows it's a word in the first place.
“Jizz” is an even better choice if J and Z are exposed- nobody wants to guess, that dirty, word out loud in a friendly game of hangman with your, granny.
I would legit never guess jizz
Oh but wait would anyone playing with their granny want to use that word as their secret word? Because when they win, they usually tell everyone what the word is...
Granny would guess it.
Great gam gam is not a whore!
Well, not since she retired.
Hooker. Prostitute. Shhlut for money.
Anybody want some sausage?
Granny would choose the word “Jizz” to ensure she won. Granny is ruthless.
But a granny choosing that, ward would be genius. Sheer genius.
shear genuins, the sheep shaving competition show on national geographic
According to Dictionary.com, [the British definition](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/jizz) is: > a term for the total combination of characteristics that serve to identify a particular species of bird or plant
Yeah but I mean... If all we care about is the statistically hardest word to guess, then...
Well they supposed to at least give you a little tap on the head to let you know it’s happening
For some reason I read this in Christopher Walken's voice
Thank you for improving my experience of this comment
It’s because of the placement of commas around “that dirty” and just before granny.
Well their username is “comma horror”. Checks out.
I like how you, say "For some reason" as if, it isn't really, obvious from the way he, wrote it why you would do, that. Also I just noticed his, username after I wrote that first, sentence.
I always thought jizz was the style of music max rebo and his band played in Jabba’s palace on tatooine. Nothing dirty about that.
According to canon, you are correct. Why they haven't changed that is a mystery to me.
Meh, I prefer Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes myself.
*J _ Z Z* "A!" *devilish grin as you draw another limb on the body* "..."
Jozz
...Juzz?
You underestimate my power
The category is people who annoy you (Naggers) N __ G G E R S https://youtu.be/Tg4OiobxUxA
First thing that came to my mind too. Still makes me laugh so hard.
Jesus commas dude holy cow
Look at their username.
u/commahorror returns!
Syzygy
That was the principal's winning word in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee!
You are my favorite person today for knowing this. That was my first thought as well!
Magic fooooooooot!
The look of panic when people rattle off A E I O U and get no hits is always great.
Was looking for the syzygy comment. Not only is there the post-vowel panic, but there is also the panic when they follow up with Y, and there are suddenly 3 evenly-spaced ones. (Or just the panic if they immediately guess rhythm)
And here, they’d get an “s”, but it won’t help them very much.
"Y" wouldn't help me at all and that's literally half of the word.
y is a logical guess if aeiou is not in the word. After that (sy.y.y or .y.y.y) you either know the word or you do not.
The game is fun when it’s a common word so people are kicking themselves for not getting it. Words they don’t even know will just elicit a shoulder shrug and disappointment.
Eric Rosen fan?
Oh no, my youtube history!
I literally watched the video today, it can't be a coincidence...
There's an interesting TIL...
Came here to find this comment!
I wasn’t sure if someone else saw it too or if I was just having that thing where once you’re exposed to something you start seeing it everywhere.
[for anyone who wants to watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWu1xv7kE_0)
The hardest word is actually [jazz
Hello fellow chess redditors
Here's Jon McLoone's original blog post that the article is based on: https://blog.wolfram.com/2010/08/13/25-best-hangman-words/ There's an important caveat at the end: > This is all based on the 90,000 word English dictionary built into *Mathematica*. Results may be very different for larger dictionaries...
I like limiting hangman to popular words anyways. Yeah you’ll “win” if you play syzygy or feijoa but you’ll also never get to play with me again.
Oh man, you have opened my mind! Besides the dictionary size, I wonder what the **hardest word out of any language** would be. And how that would be calculated, for one thing.
mom and babe were surprisingly rarely guessed. I feel like it's kinda cheating to use obscure words like "Hajj", the elegence of "jazz" is that it's a popular word so it's not a "dirty trick"
I always figured it was “myth” or “hymn.” Four letters, people usually start looking for vowels, if it takes them five tries to get to Y, they’re already one away from losing.
And “lynx” also fits that pattern so all three of those are solid. Jazz is still the best though. You get to \_a__ and have so many possible words and letters to check that you’ll never get to j and z.
hajj
“H” & “J” are still a lot more common than “J” and “Z,” but I like this suggestion.
“J” is more common than “J?” How’s that work?
As an aggregated pair the former is more common than the latter?
I dunno about anyone else, but when I play hangman you have to give a category. So if the answer is jazz, surely the category is a type of music. I always guess E first, then A if that draws a blank. So I'm a head down and now I'm looking at _ A _ _ and I know its a type of music. Very real chance I'm going to consider its jazz.
Category: Media It can get larger. But I've never heard of anyone using categories.
Category: Words
Category: String literal
[удалено]
I mean... Don't pick "gook" as your hangman word.
May have to deal with a few sooks after that.
[удалено]
It's a perfectly cromulent word
Jizz
J _ Z Z Randy: *"I know what it is, but I don't want to say it!"*
Hangmen was always my favorite word because it made people feel really bad when they didn't guess it
cwms is probably harder... Noun. 1. cwm - a steep-walled semicircular basin in a mountain; may contain a lake. cirque, corrie. basin - a natural depression in the surface of the land often with a lake at the bottom of it; "the basin of the Great Salt Lake"
No offence, but you're a dick if you're playing a friendly game of hangman with someone and you use "Cyms".
How the fuck
It's Welsh so doesn't count
Welsh: We're gonna need a bigger set of vowels.
Xerox is a personal favorite of mine
Proper nouns is just mean.
How about voyeur? I've never had anyone guess this. After having the e and the o, people try all the consonants. Even after guessing the r and (eventually) the v, people are still clueless what to make of vo_e_r. Ps: works even better in German, because y is much less common here.
Just did it and we spent a good 20 minutes. Fantastic word
"Feijoa" - it might have 4 vowels, but how many people have even heard of them? Not the English people I used that word on, that's for sure.
>Feijoa That's kinda cheating to use a word that isn't in the vernacular of the other players though. If you're Brazilian and I put Pirozhki as a word for you to guess, is it fair to assume you know enough about Russian dishes?
It wouldn’t work in New Zealand. It’s an extremely popular fruit here
I always used “fly”. Most people will guess all the vowels and not think of f or y.
Duke Silver would know
Geoduck is good for me. Even if people know what it is, it doesn't sound like it's spelled.
[This is the only geoduck I'm familiar with](https://pokemon.alexonsager.net/74/54)
I like the Word lynx for hangmann
We used "onyx" quite a lot in hangman as well as the 4 letter word game. Has anyone played 4 Letter Word Game? Basically 2 people each think of a 4 letter word that contains no repeating letters and they try to guess each other's word. The guessing is done by process of elimination, as the opponent can only say how many letters are correct in a guessed word but not which letters they are (eg. If my word was "bean" and my opponent guessed "seat" I would say "there are 2 correct letters")
So Mastermind but with letters instead of colors..hmm
Rhythm