UK Counties Words for Hangman 🗺️

A word list of UK counties from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, sorted by difficulty — for teachers running a geography lesson, quiz hosts picking a themed round, or players who want to know what they're up against. It mixes historic and present-day counties. To play hangman with these words online, try the UK Counties category on Hangmango.

Play UK Counties Hangman 🥭

Easy UK counties for hangman

Short, famous names from all four nations.

Kent Essex Devon Cornwall Dorset Surrey Sussex Norfolk Suffolk Yorkshire Durham Somerset Cumbria Fife Rutland Antrim Tyrone Angus Powys Orkney

Medium UK counties for hangman

The familiar -shire counties, the old counties of the north, and the islands.

Hampshire Cheshire Lancashire Wiltshire Berkshire Shropshire Derbyshire Oxfordshire Lincolnshire Northumberland Merseyside Cumberland Westmorland Middlesex Isle Of Wight Anglesey Gwynedd Armagh Ayrshire Shetland

Hard UK counties for hangman — the trickiest spellings

The long names, silent letters included.

Worcestershire Leicestershire Gloucestershire Warwickshire Northamptonshire Nottinghamshire Buckinghamshire Hertfordshire Herefordshire Cambridgeshire Staffordshire Huntingdonshire Kirkcudbrightshire Clackmannanshire Carmarthenshire Pembrokeshire Monmouthshire Fermanagh Caithness Dumfriesshire

What makes county names hard to guess in hangman?

Silent letters. Worcestershire, Leicestershire, Gloucestershire and Kirkcudbrightshire all carry letters nobody pronounces.

Sheer length. Eighteen of the twenty Hard answers end in -shire, and the front half is often ten letters or more.

Welsh spellings. Gwynedd (said "GWIN-eth") and Powys follow Welsh spelling, not English.

Tips for guessing UK counties

Try S, H, I, R and E on long words. Twenty-nine of the sixty answers end in -shire.

E and R first. They are the most common letters in this list.

Watch for -sex and -folk. Essex, Sussex, Middlesex, Norfolk and Suffolk all begin with a compass point — or the middle.

Questions

What is the hardest UK county to guess in hangman?
Kirkcudbrightshire — 18 letters, said "kir-COO-bree-shire", so sounding it out won't help. Clackmannanshire is close behind.

Is Worcestershire the county the sauce is named after?
Yes — Worcestershire sauce was first made in Worcester, the county town, in the 1830s. It's in the Food word list too.

Can I use these words in my own hangman game?
Absolutely — this list is here to use. To play online with UK Counties as the category right now, click here to start a game.

Play more: UK Counties Hangman · UK Counties strategy guide · Daily Challenge · US States word list · Cities word list · For Teachers