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CUCKOO
Definition of CUCKOO
noun
Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae within the order Cuculiformes, famous for laying its eggs in the nests of other species; but especially a common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), that has a characteristic two-note call.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English cokkou, kokkow, cukkuk, gokkouȝ, probably from Old French cocu, coquu, cucu (whence French coucou); ultimately onomatopoeic of the song of the male Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), perhaps via Latin cucūlus (“cuckoo”). Compare dialectal English gowkoo (“cuckoo”). Displaced Middle English gnokken (“cuckoo”) and native Middle English yeke, ȝek (from Old English ġēac (“cuckoo”)), see English gowk. The UK sense (verb sense 3) is by analogy from the bird's practice of brood parasitism. The Malaysian and Singaporean sense (noun sense 8) is a phono-semantic matching of Hokkien 咕咕鳥 / 咕咕鸟 (ku-kú-chiáu)
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
30.7%
of traced words share this origin (25,613)
branch · 30.7% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, CUCKOO · 1 relative in the game
Its etymology also names Malay, Old English.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
CUCKOO in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 153, 20 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 16 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 153, 20 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CUCKOO starts with C and ends with O. Sorted, its letters read CCKOOU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. C and O appear more than once, including a double letter.
Words that start CUCKOO
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found CUCKOO?
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 153 - and most players walked straight past it.
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