Cities for Hangman ๐๏ธ
Thirty example city names for your own hangman games, sorted by difficulty and each with a one-line clue - useful for geography teachers, pub quiz hosts running a cities round, or a class quiz. None of them is a national capital: capitals have their own word list. The lists move from short, well-known names to long spellings full of silent letters and doubled consonants. These are separate from the words in the online game, so you can use them without giving its answers away - or try the Cities category on Hangmango for a different set.
Play Cities Hangman ๐ฅญEasy cities for hangman
Short, well-known city names of four to seven letters with straightforward spellings, from Galileo's birthplace on the River Arno to a city of big theme parks. These work well for mixed-age groups or as a warm-up before moving to longer names.
Medium cities for hangman
Longer city names that most people know but may trip over when spelling letter by letter - particularly those that came into English from Japanese or Spanish, and English names like Birmingham that hide a letter you never hear.
Hard cities for hangman - the trickiest spellings
Long names, silent letters, doubled consonants and transliterations from other scripts make these the hardest cities to guess in hangman. Most people have heard of them; far fewer could write them out in full.
Clues for every word
A one-line clue for every word, easy to hard, each one checked against a source - read them out when you run your own game. These words and clues are separate from the ones in the online game, so they won't give its answers away.
- Pisa
- Tuscan city on the River Arno where Galileo was born, with a university going back to the 12th century.
- Nice
- French city on the Mediterranean coast at the foot of the Alps, about 13 km from Monaco.
- Perth
- Capital of Western Australia, settled on the Swan River and named after a city in Scotland.
- Porto
- Second city of its country after Lisbon, on the Douro River, and home of a famous fortified wine.
- Agra
- Indian city on the Yamuna river, home of the Taj Mahal, which Shah Jahan built in memory of his wife.
- Oxford
- English city where the Thames and Cherwell meet, home of the oldest university in the English-speaking world.
- Dallas
- Big city in northern Texas that grew up with the railways, cotton, cattle and later oil.
- Cannes
- Resort city on the French Riviera that hosts a film festival every year.
- Orlando
- Inland city in Central Florida that attracts tourists with major events and theme parks.
- Dundee
- Scotland's fourth-largest city, on the Firth of Tay, once known for 'jute, jam and journalism'.
- Valencia
- Spanish city on the Mediterranean coast where the rice dish paella was born.
- Florence
- City in Tuscany seen by many as the birthplace of the Renaissance, and home of the Medici family.
- Yokohama
- Japan's second-largest city and one of its major ports, on Tokyo Bay just south of Tokyo.
- Sapporo
- Biggest city on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, host of Asia's first Winter Olympics in 1972.
- Brisbane
- Capital of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia, near Moreton Bay.
- Los Angeles
- California's most populous city, by the Pacific Ocean; Hollywood became part of it in 1910.
- Cambridge
- English city about 55 miles north of London, home to a university founded in 1209.
- Birmingham
- Often called the UK's second city, it is England's most inland major city, in the West Midlands.
- Tangier
- Moroccan city on the coasts of both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
- Salzburg
- Austrian city at the foot of the Alps where Mozart was born, with one of Europe's largest medieval fortresses.
- Pittsburgh
- Pennsylvania city where two rivers meet to form the Ohio River, known as 'the Steel City'.
- Cincinnati
- Ohio city on the Ohio River, once called the 'Paris of America', mainly for its ambitious architecture.
- Minneapolis
- Most populous city of its US state, on both banks of the Mississippi, nicknamed the 'City of Lakes'.
- Gloucester
- English city on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean, founded by the Romans.
- Samarkand
- One of the oldest cities in Central Asia, in Uzbekistan, and a key centre on the Silk Road.
- Chengdu
- Capital of China's Sichuan province, home to a research base for breeding giant pandas.
- Dubrovnik
- Croatian seaport on the Adriatic Sea, famous for the old city walls that run almost 2 km around it.
- Bordeaux
- French port city on the river Garonne, known around the world as a capital of wine.
- Strasbourg
- Largest city of north-eastern France's Grand Est region, with a Christmas market dating back to 1570.
- Hyderabad
- Indian city on the Deccan Plateau, once nicknamed the 'City of Pearls' for its pearl industry.
What makes city names hard to guess in hangman?
Silent letters. Gloucester has ten letters but is said "GLOSS-ter", and Bordeaux spends four letters, EAUX, on a single "oh" sound. Players who guess by sound have nothing to go on for the letters they can't hear.
Transliteration. Chengdu is only seven letters, but its spelling follows Chinese romanisation rather than English habits. Samarkand and Hyderabad also come into English from other scripts, so their spellings follow no English rule either.
Three of a kind. Cincinnati has three Ns and three Is in ten letters - one that punishes players who assume a word holds each letter only once or twice.
Long names with quiet middles. Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Strasbourg are all long enough that even knowing the city well, players can misplace a letter when forced to guess one at a time. The middle sections - where the word is partly revealed but not fully - are where errors creep in.
Tips for guessing city names
Start with A and then E. Between them, A and E cover a remarkable number of tiles in city names at every level. Samarkand has three As, and Yokohama, Valencia and Hyderabad have two each.
Try N and S early on long words. Both appear very frequently across city names. Minneapolis has two Ns and an S; Los Angeles has an N and two Ss.
Watch for doubled letters. Seven of the thirty names have one: Pittsburgh doubles its T, Sapporo its P and Cannes its N. If a word looks shorter than you expect, check whether a doubling is accounting for the extra length.
Think second cities, not capitals. None of these are national capitals - if you're stuck on a long blank, run through famous ports, university cities and holiday resorts instead, like Porto, Oxford or Cannes.
Questions
What is the hardest city name to guess in hangman?
On this list, Minneapolis by length at eleven letters, Gloucester by sound - its silent letters defeat sound-based guessing. Cincinnati, with its three Ns and three Is, is strong competition.
Why are there no capital cities in this list?
They have a category of their own - see the Capital Cities word list. Keeping the two apart means each list covers its own half of the atlas: this one is all ports, resorts, university cities and regional centres, from Dundee to Dubrovnik.
Can I use these words in my own hangman game?
Yes - that's what they're for, clues included. The online game uses a different set of cities, so to play right now, click here to start a game.
Play more: Cities Hangman ยท Cities strategy guide ยท Daily Challenge ยท Capital Cities word list ยท Countries word list ยท For Teachers