Hangman

noun

noun ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An executioner responsible for hanging criminals. countable

    "One cried, "God bless us!" and "Amen" the other, As they had seen me with these hangman's hands."

  2. 2
    a male executioner who hangs the condemned person wordnet
  3. 3
    Someone responsible for hanging pictures and other artworks in a gallery, museum etc. countable, uncountable

    "I also asked some Royal Academicians to view it, viz. Northcote, Cosway, &c. who approved of it much: it is well composed, and beautifully coloured; but the hangmen at the Exhibition have not hung it in a conspicuous situation; it is placed in an ante-room, and pretty high […]."

  4. 4
    A guessing game where one has to guess the word an opponent is thinking of by guessing one letter at a time, and involving the gradual drawing of a stick figure hanging from the gallows. uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
strangler

Example

More examples

"There are many simple games which can be played with just paper and pencil, such as hangman and tic-tac-toe (sometimes called naughts and crosses)."

Etymology

From Middle English hangman, hongman, hangeman, equivalent to hang + -man.

Related phrases

cheat the hangmanhangman paradoxhangman's fracturehangman's jighangman's noosehangman's wagesguessing gamehangman's noosestick figure

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.