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CRATCH

/kɹæt͡ʃ/6 letters

Definition of CRATCH

verb

To scratch.

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Where it comes from

From Middle English cratchen, cracchen (“to scratch”), alteration of *cratsen (“to scratch”), from Old Norse *kratsa or Middle Low German kratsen, krassen (“to scratch”), both ultimately from Old High German krazzōn, crazōn (“to scratch”), from Proto-West Germanic *krattōn (“to scratch”), ultimately of uncertain, likely onomatopoeic origin, and/or derived from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to scratch, carve, cut”). Cognate with Icelandic krota (“to engrave”). Compare also Icelandic krassa (“to scrawl”), Danish kradse (“to scratch, scrape, claw”), Swedish kratsa (“to scratch”), Dutch kratsen (“to scratch”), German kratzen (“to scratch”), and Albanian gërresë (“rasp, scraper”). Doublet of grate.

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

Word DNA

Line of descent

  1. Proto-Indo-European
  2. Middle Low German
  3. Old Norse
  4. Middle English
  5. English

4 recorded generations before English.

Proto-Indo-European

Deepest traced root

3rd

of 58 source languages in OUTLIER

9%

of traced words share this origin (2,584)

How it is built

verb1 syllable

Same root, CRATCH · 1 relative in the game

Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Swedish.

Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →

Rarity score
Withheld
Revealed only in play
Tier
Withheld
Find it yourself

OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.

CRATCH in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 2 boards so far.

Day 1Day 142
Its 2 boards, across 142 finished boards · taller bars are busier boards
2
Boards found on
137
First board
139
Latest board
2
Longest gap, days

It first turned up on Day 137, 4 October 2026. The most recent board was Day 139, 6 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.

First ever to find it

stoneal

on Day 137, 4 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers

Built from these letters

CRATCH
6
Letters
1
Vowels
5
Consonants
5
Different letters
3
Longest consonant run
1
Longest vowel run

CRATCH starts with C and ends with H. Sorted, its letters read ACCHRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. C appears more than once.

Words that start CRATCH

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

Could you have found CRATCH?

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 137 - and most players walked straight past it.

Play today's OUTLIER