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ACHE
Definition of ACHE
verb
To suffer pain; to be the source of, or be in, pain, especially continued dull pain; to be distressed.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English aken (verb), and ache (noun), from Old English acan (verb) (from Proto-West Germanic *akan, from Proto-Germanic *akaną (“to ache”)) and æċe (noun) (from Proto-West Germanic *aki, from Proto-Germanic *akiz), traditionally explained as from a Proto-Indo-European *h₂égos. Cognate with Saterland Frisian eeke, ääke (“to ache, fester”), Low German aken, achen, äken (“to hurt, ache”), German Low German Eek (“inflammation”), North Frisian akelig, æklig (“terrible, miserable, sharp, intense”), West Frisian aaklik (“nasty, horrible, dismal, dreary”), Dutch akelig (“nasty, horrible”). The verb was originally strong, conjugating for tense like take (e.g. I ake, I oke, I have aken), but gradually became weak during Middle English; the noun was originally pronounced as /eɪt͡ʃ/ as spelled (compare breach, from break). Historically the verb was spelled ake, and the noun ache (even after the form /eɪk/ started to become common for the noun; compare again break which is now also a noun). The verb came to be spelled like the noun when lexicographer Samuel Johnson mistakenly assumed that it derived from Ancient Greek ἄχος (ákhos, “pain”) due to the similarity in form and meaning of the two words.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,769)
How it is built
Same root, ACHE · 8 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Ancient Greek, Dutch.
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
ACHE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 11 boards so far. 12 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 20, 9 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 144, 11 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 22 days.
First found by a player on Day 20, 9 June 2026.
Built from these letters
ACHE starts with A and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ACEH - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start ACHE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 20
Could you have found ACHE?
OUTLIER is a daily word game. One grid, the same grid for everybody, and the words nobody else spots are the ones that pay. This word was on Day 20 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER