How to play Hangman with the best strategy?

Hangman is a word-guessing game where you try to identify a hidden word letter by letter before running out of guesses. Basic rules: A word is chosen and represented by dashes (one per letter). You guess one letter at a time. Correct guesses reveal all instances of that letter. Wrong guesses add body parts to the hangman figure. Too many wrong guesses = game over. Optimal guessing strategy: Step 1: Guess E — the most common letter in English (appears in ~13% of all letters). Step 2: Guess A — second most common vowel. Step 3: Guess T, N, S — common consonants that appear in most words. Step 4: Use the revealed letters and word length to narrow down possibilities. Letter frequency order (most to least common): E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, D, L, C, U, M, W, F, G, Y, P, B, V, K, J, X, Q, Z. Advanced tips: Consider word length — short words have different letter distributions than long words. Look for common letter pairs: TH, HE, IN, ER, AN. If you see _ _ _ E, common endings are -TION, -MENT, -NESS. In themed Hangman games, use the category to narrow guesses (animals: think of common animal words). The key insight: Hangman is a game of statistical probability. By guessing letters in frequency order and using revealed letters to eliminate possibilities, you maximize your chances of winning with minimal wrong guesses.