hangman

/ˈhæŋˌmæn/

nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,425 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: hangmen

A hangman is the official who carries out a hanging. The public hangman, the hangman's noose, appoint a hangman.

In Britain the job was held by very few people, and Albert Pierrepoint, the last well-known one, wrote afterwards that he had come to believe the punishment achieved nothing. Hangman is also the paper word game with the gallows drawn stroke by stroke.

Definitions of hangman

1nounhangmanThe official who carries out a hanging.B2
“The hangman checked the rope before the prisoner was led onto the scaffold.”

hangman is an official.

Where it comes from

Middle English hangman, hang plus man, recorded from the fourteenth century.

Middle English
hangman
English, today
hangman

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

hangman in the wild

The film was renamed Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman for its North American release, although Pierrepoint was not the last British hangman.
Pierrepoint (film)
In the sea theme, each incorrect guess makes a lighthouse project another piece of the hangman.
KHangMan
In the bee theme, a yellow hangman is created in the background.
KHangMan
Who could be interested in the fate of a murderer but the hangman who would gain his fee?
Frankenstein; or, the modern prometheus· Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

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