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ANCHOVY
Definition of ANCHOVY
noun
Any small saltwater fish of the Engraulidae family, consisting of 160 species in sixteen genera, those of the genus Engraulis being widely sold as food.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Spanish anchoa, from Genoese Ligurian anciôa or related Corsican anchjuva, anciua. The term's ultimate origin is unclear; some suggest it may have derived from an unattested Vulgar Latin term *apiuva, from Latin aphyē, apua, from Ancient Greek ἀφύη (aphúē) (which may be formed like Sanskrit अभ्व (ábhva-, “monster”)); others suggest it comes from Basque antxu, anchu (“dried fish”), from anchuva (“dry”), if that Basque term is not itself derived from Latin via some intermediary. None of these hypotheses is satisfactory because of the phonetic irregularities.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
14th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.9%
of traced words share this origin (254)
branch · 1.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, ANCHOVY · 1 relative in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
ANCHOVY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 30 boards so far. 142 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 150, 17 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
ANCHOVY starts with A and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read ACHNOVY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start ANCHOV
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found ANCHOVY?
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 7 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER