Best word for Hangman

Hangman is a popular past time. Wikipedia describes it as a

One player thinks of a word, phrase or sentence and the other tries to guess it by suggesting letters or numbers, within a certain number of guesses.

A friend came over the other day, and the choice of good words for hangman came up. He mentioned two if his favorites, xylophone and homophobe.

The question stayed with me for a long a while, so I am trying to settle the question which is the best word for hangman with the aid of a computer. Take note that this is depend on the strategy the guessing party uses. I will report on my findings once I have a definitive answer.