The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HAIL
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).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,554)
How it is built
Same root, HAIL · 9 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Ancient Greek, Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, Old Norse, Sanskrit, Swedish.
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.
HAIL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 31 boards so far. 42 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 23, 12 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 155, 22 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
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.
Also seen on Day 23
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.
Play today's OUTLIER