hangman

noun

hang·​man ˈhaŋ-mən 

1

: one who hangs a condemned person

also : a public executioner

2

: a game in which the object is for one player to guess the letters of an unknown word before the player who knows the word creates a stick figure of a hanged man by drawing one line for each incorrect guess

Examples of hangman in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The former cop also claimed to have found a hangman’s noose under Epstein’s mattress. —Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News, 16 June 2026

Even-handed, compassionate, and as suffocatingly tense as a hangman's noose, Munich is Spielberg's most underrated film. —Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly, 13 June 2026

Just after the American Civil War, people in Pennsylvania were still following the ancient Roman polymath Pliny’s advice to wrap their aching heads with a piece of a hangman’s noose. —Literary Hub, 24 Feb. 2026

The classic effigy comes with a free hangman’s noose or lasso. —Jack Handey, New Yorker, 17 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

hangman

noun

hang·​man ˈhaŋ-mən 

1

: a person who hangs condemned criminals

2

: a game in which the object is for one player to guess the letters of an unknown word before the player who knows the word creates a stick figure of a hanged man by drawing one line for each incorrect guess