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FREE
Definition of FREE
adjective
Unconstrained.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English fre, from Old English frēo, frēoh, frī, friġ, frīoh (“free”), from Proto-West Germanic *frī, from Proto-Germanic *frijaz (“beloved, not in bondage”), from Proto-Indo-European *priHós (“pleased, loved”), from *preyH- (“to please; to love”). Related to friend. Germanic cognates include Scots fre (“free”), North Frisian frai, frei, fri, Frii (“free”), Saterland Frisian fräi (“free”), West Frisian frij (“free”), Dutch vrij (“free”), German frei (“free”), Low German free (“free”), Luxembourgish fräi (“free”), Vilamovian frȧj (“free”), Yiddish פֿרײַ (fray, “free”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fri (“free”), Faroese fríur (“free”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌴𐌹𐍃 (freis, “free”). Other cognates include Cornish rydh (“free”), Welsh rhydd (“free”), Latin propriō (“to appropriate”), Czech přát (“to wish; to favour”), Polish sprzyjać (“to favour, foster”), Serbo-Croatian прѝјати, prìjati (“to please, taste, suit; to be agreeable, relish”), Slovak priať (“to wish”), Avestan 𐬟𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀 (friia, “good, pleasant”), Persian فری (fari, “beloved, dear; agreeable, pleasing”), Sanskrit प्रिय (priya, “beloved”). Germanic and Celtic are the only Indo-European language branches in which the PIE word with the meaning of "dear, beloved" acquired the additional meaning of "free" in the sense of "not in bondage". This was an extension of the idea of "characteristic of those who are dear and beloved", in other words friends and tribe members (in contrast to unfree inhabitants from other tribes and prisoners of war, many of which were among the slaves – compare the Latin use of liberi to mean both "free persons" and "children of a family").
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
14.3%
of traced words share this origin (11,343)
How it is built
Same root, FREE · 10 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Czech, Danish, Dutch, Latin, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Sanskrit and 4 more.
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.
FREE in OUTLIER
It has fitted 1 board so far. 10 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 153, 20 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 8 days.
First found by a player on Day 23, 12 June 2026.
Built from these letters
FREE starts with F and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EEFR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. E appears more than once, including a double letter.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start FREE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found FREE?
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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