Free word tool

Hangman solver

Enter what you can see and the letters that were wrong. You get the best letter to guess next and every word that still fits.

Try:

Which letters appear in the most words

Share of the 152,368 words in our list (3 to 12 letters) that contain each letter.

  • E 68%
  • S 58%
  • I 56%
  • A 52%
  • R 50%
  • N 45%
  • T 44%
  • O 43%
  • L 38%
  • C 29%
  • D 27%
  • U 26%

Best first letters by word length

The four letters that appear in the most words of each length in our dictionary, and the share of words that contain each.

LengthWords1st2nd3rd4th
43,874A 36%E 34%S 33%O 27%
58,596S 46%E 45%A 41%R 31%
615,212E 61%S 46%A 43%R 40%
723,103E 66%S 53%I 48%A 47%
828,453E 69%S 58%I 54%A 51%
924,910E 73%S 65%I 61%R 55%
1020,334E 76%I 68%S 65%R 58%

A simple hangman plan

  1. Open with a vowel. E, then A, then O or I.
  2. Read the pattern. A letter that appears twice in the middle often means a double like LL or SS.
  3. Switch to R, S, T, N, L. These are the most common consonants.
  4. Use the solver when three or more letters are showing. The candidate list gets short quickly.
HATCH game screenshot
A different word game

HATCH: spell words, hatch eggs

HATCH has you spell words from a letter ring to crack an egg and hatch a creature. A softer cousin of hangman.

Play HATCH

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Questions

How does the hangman solver work?

Type the word with _ or ? for the blanks, and list the letters that were wrong. The solver keeps every word of that length that matches and has none of the wrong letters, then counts which letter appears in the most of them.

What is the best first letter in hangman?

E is the most common letter across English words, followed by A, R, I, O and T. For a short word, vowels are more useful early. For a long word, start with E, S, R or T.

Should I guess vowels first?

Usually yes. Vowels show up in almost every word, so they reveal structure fast. After two vowels, switch to the common consonants R, S, T, N and L.

Does it work for words with repeated letters?

Yes. If a letter appears in two places, fill in both. Blanks can never hold a letter you have already revealed, so that narrows the list correctly.