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HAIL

/heɪl/4 letters

Definition of HAIL

noun

Balls or pieces of ice falling as precipitation, often in connection with a thunderstorm.

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Where it comes from

From Middle English hayl, haul, from Old English hæġl, hæġel, hagol (“hail”), from Proto-West Germanic *hagl, from Proto-Germanic *haglaz, of uncertain origin. Either from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰlos (“pebble”); or alternatively from *ḱoḱló-, a reduplication of *ḱel- (“cold”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hail (“hail”), West Frisian heil (“hail”), Low German Hagel (“hail”), German Hagel (“hail”), Dutch and Swedish hagel (“hail”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Icelandic hagl (“hail”). Compare also Old Norse héla (“frost”). Doublet of haglaz, if the second etymology (“cold”) is correct. Root-cognates outside of Germanic include Ancient Greek κάχληξ (kákhlēx, “pebble”), or alternatively Sanskrit शिशिर (śíśira, “cool, cold”), possibly also Lithuanian šešėlis (“shade, shadow”), depending on the etymology.

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

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.

HAIL in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 18 boards so far. 26 players have found it across Outlier's history.

Day 1Day 102
Its 18 boards, across 102 finished boards · taller bars are busier boards
18
Boards found on
23
First board
99
Latest board
15
Longest gap, days

It first turned up on Day 23, 12 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 99, 27 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.

First found by a player on Day 23, 12 June 2026.

Built from these letters

HAIL
4
Letters
2
Vowels
2
Consonants
4
Different letters
1
Longest consonant run
2
Longest vowel run

HAIL starts with H and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AHIL - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.

Same letters, different word

One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.

Words that start HAIL

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

Could you have found HAIL?

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 23 - and most players walked straight past it.

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