The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HANDCUFF
Definition of HANDCUFF
noun
One ring of a locking fetter for the hand or one pair.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From hand + cuff (“end of shirtsleeve”). Possibly an adaptation of Middle English handcops (“shackles for the hand, handcuffs”), from Old English handcops, from hand + cops, cosp (“fetter, chains”), but due to a lack of continuity (centuries between Old English and the modern term), generally analyzed as a re-invention. Nominal form first appears c. 1591 in the publications of John Florio. Verbal form first appears c. 1649.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Old English
- Middle English
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
6th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
4.2%
of traced words share this origin (1,192)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, HANDCUFF · 2 relatives in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
HANDCUFF in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 134, 1 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
Built from these letters
HANDCUFF starts with H and ends with F. Sorted, its letters read ACDFFHNU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. F appears more than once, including a double letter.
Words that start HANDCU
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found HANDCUFF?
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 134 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER