Ahorcado

Hangman is a classic word-guessing game where one player thinks of a word and the other tries to guess it one letter at a time. Each correct guess reveals where that letter appears in the word. Each incorrect guess adds a body part to a stick figure being "hanged" on a gallows. The guessing player must figure out the word before the drawing is complete. In digital versions, the game is played against the computer, which selects the word from a dictionary.

Rules

1. A secret word is chosen and represented as a row of blank dashes, one per letter.
2. The player guesses one letter at a time.
3. If the guessed letter appears in the word, all instances of that letter are revealed in their correct positions.
4. If the guessed letter does not appear in the word, one part of the hangman figure is drawn (head, body, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg — typically 6 wrong guesses allowed).
5. The player wins by guessing all letters in the word before the figure is complete.
6. The player loses if the hangman figure is fully drawn before the word is guessed.
7. Some variations allow the player to guess the entire word at any time, but an incorrect full-word guess counts as a wrong guess.

Strategies

• Start with Common Letters: The most frequently used letters in English are E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R. Starting with these maximizes your chances of revealing letters early.
• Vowels First: Guessing vowels (A, E, I, O, U) early gives you the word's skeleton structure, which often hints at the consonants.
• Word Length Clues: The number of blanks tells you the word length. Short words (3-4 letters) and long words (10+ letters) have different common patterns.
• Pattern Recognition: Once a few letters are revealed, think about common letter combinations (TH, SH, CH, -ING, -TION, -ED, UN-, RE-).
• Eliminate Rare Letters Last: Save uncommon letters (Q, Z, X, J, K) for when you have strong evidence they might appear.
• Consider Word Categories: If the category is known (animal, country, food), use domain-specific vocabulary to narrow possibilities.

The origins of Hangman are murky, but the game is believed to date back to at least the Victorian era (mid-to-late 1800s). Some historians trace it to a European parlor game, and there are references to similar word-guessing games in various 19th-century sources. The specific gallows-drawing element may have originated as a morbid form of entertainment in an era when public executions were part of everyday life.

The game was first described in print under the name "Birds, Beasts and Fishes" in Alice Bertha Gomme's 1894 book "Traditional Games." In this early version, the player had to guess the name of an animal, and wrong guesses were tallied rather than drawn. The gallows and stick figure variant became widespread in the early 20th century, particularly in American and British schools, where it became a beloved classroom activity for teaching spelling and vocabulary.

Despite its dark imagery, Hangman has remained one of the most popular educational games worldwide. In the mid-20th century, it became a standard feature of children's game books and activity collections. Teachers embraced it as a tool for language learning, particularly in foreign-language classrooms, where it provides an engaging way to practice vocabulary and spelling.

The television game show "Wheel of Fortune," which premiered in the United States in 1975, is essentially a Hangman variant with a spinning wheel to determine rewards. The show became one of the longest-running and most popular game shows in television history, demonstrating the enduring appeal of the word-guessing format. In the digital age, Hangman has been implemented in countless apps, websites, and programming tutorials — it is often one of the first games new programmers learn to build.