History for Hangman 📜

Clues for every answer

A one-line clue for every answer, easy to hard. They're the same clues the game's 💡 Hint shows, so you can read them out when you run your own game.

King

Royal title for a male monarch; the word comes from Old English cyning, meaning 'ruler' or 'leader'.

Queen

A female monarch, or the wife or widow of a king; in chess, the most powerful piece.

War

Armed conflict between the forces of states, or between a government and organised armed groups.

Peace

A state of harmony with no hostility or violence, and freedom from fear of violence between groups.

Empire

Group of territories controlled by a monarch or a supreme central authority, typically with diverse peoples.

Castle

Fortified home of a lord or noble from the Middle Ages; portcullises and arrowslits were common features.

Knight

Medieval warrior skilled in battle on horseback; in the UK today it is an honour that gives the title 'Sir'.

Sword

Edged, bladed weapon for cutting or thrusting, with a blade longer than a knife's fixed to a hilt.

Crown

Traditional head adornment worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity.

Throne

Impressive seat used by a monarch on formal occasions, often on a raised platform called a dais.

Treaty

Legally binding agreement between sovereign states or international organisations, governed by international law.

Republic

State where political power rests with the people, usually through their representatives, rather than a hereditary monarch.

Colony

Area under the control of a faraway country; also a group of settlers who keep ties to their homeland.

Revolution

Rapid, fundamental change to a society's structures, pushed by mass action such as protests and strikes.

Democracy

Government in which political power belongs to the people; today citizens usually elect officials.

Battle

Combat between opposing military units over a defined period and area; a war usually has several of them.

Siege

Military blockade of a city or fortress, cutting off its supplies; the word comes from Latin for 'to sit'.

Viking

Seafaring people from Scandinavia who raided, traded and settled across Europe, late 8th to late 11th centuries.

Pharaoh

Monarch of ancient Egypt, who owned all the land, made the laws and collected taxes.

Pyramid

Ancient Egyptian masonry structure, most built as tombs for pharaohs; the most famous stand at Giza.

Renaissance

Means 'rebirth': a European cultural movement reviving classical art and ideas, first centred in Florence.

Reformation

16th-century European movement that challenged the authority of the papacy and began Protestantism.

Armistice

Formal agreement by warring sides to stop fighting; one signed in 1918 is remembered every 11 November.

Crusades

Series of medieval military campaigns launched by the papacy between 1095 and 1291 over the Holy Land.

Colonialism

Practice of one people dominating another land and its people from an often distant home country, sometimes sending settlers.

Guillotine

Execution machine with a tall frame and a weighted, angled blade, best known from the French Revolution.

Suffragette

Campaigner for votes for women in the WSPU, the British group founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst.

Parliament

A state's law-making body, typically of elected members; England's of 1265 grew into the House of Commons.

Civilisation

Complex society marked by a state, the growth of cities and writing systems for communication.

Archaeology

Study of past human activity by recovering and analysing objects and sites, using surveys and excavation.

Feudalism

Medieval European system built around holding land in return for service or labour, with lords and vassals.

Monarchy

Hereditary system in which the head of state reigns for life and the role passes to a family member.

Constitution

Supreme law: the basic principles that set out how a country is governed; the UK's isn't a single document.

Declaration

A formal act of stating something in speech or writing; a decisive statement or proclamation.

Abolition

An annulling or doing away with something; in history, the ending of the slave trade or of slavery.

Invasion

Military offensive in which one state's forces enter another's territory, normally aiming to occupy it.

Gladiator

Armed fighter who entertained crowds in the Roman Republic and Empire; the Latin name means 'swordsman'.

Senate

Assembly that is often the upper house of a legislature; the name comes from Latin for 'old man'.

Aristocracy

Form of government putting power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class; Greek for 'rule of the best'.

Propaganda

Mass communication used to persuade people, often by presenting facts selectively, e.g. on posters and films.

Mesopotamia

Historical region of West Asia by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a cradle of some of the earliest civilisations.

Byzantine

Describes the Eastern Roman Empire, centred on Constantinople, which lasted until the city fell in 1453.

Ottomans

Their empire was centred in modern Turkey from the 14th century to the early 20th; they took Constantinople in 1453.

Conquistadors

Spanish and Portuguese colonists who explored and took over many parts of the Americas in the Age of Discovery.

Imperialism

Extending and keeping power over foreign nations, particularly by expansion, through military, economic and cultural power.

Mercantilism

Economic policy aiming to maximise exports and minimise imports, dominant in Europe in the early modern period.

Nationalism

Ideology that a people sharing an identity, such as culture or language, should govern itself in its own state.

Totalitarianism

Form of government that completely controls public and private life and bans opposing political parties.

Decolonisation

Territories winning independence from foreign empires; many countries did so after the Second World War.

Suffragism

Movement for women's right to vote, active from the late 19th into the early 20th century, notably in Britain and the US.

Abolitionism

Political movement to end slavery and free enslaved people; it gained momentum in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

Republicanism

Ideology in which power lies with the people and their elected representatives, not a hereditary monarch.

Constitutionalism

Idea that a government's authority comes from, and is limited by, a body of fundamental law.

Enlightenment

Also called the Age of Reason: a European period, peaking in the 18th century, stressing reason and evidence.

Industrialisation

Change from a farming society to an economy organised for manufacturing; the first one began in Great Britain.

Colonisation

The act or process of sending people to live in and govern another country; sometimes just means settlement.

Emancipation

Freeing a person from slavery or other restraints set by law or society; also gaining equal rights.

Sovereignty

Supreme, independent control and law-making authority over a territory, including acting freely abroad.

Bureaucracy

System in which laws and rules are carried out by non-elected officials, organised into departments.

Interregnum

Gap in government, especially between one monarch and the next; England had one from 1649 to 1660.