The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HARDLY
Definition of HARDLY
adverb
Barely, only just, almost not.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English hardely, hardliche, from Old English heardlīċe (“boldly; hardily; without ease; in a way that causes pain; not easily; only by degrees”), equivalent to hard + -ly. Compare Dutch hardelijk, German härtlich.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Old English
- Middle English
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
7th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.7%
of traced words share this origin (2,890)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Its etymology also names Dutch, German.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
HARDLY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 10 boards so far. 15 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 33, 22 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 155, 22 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 4 days.
First found by a player on Day 33, 22 June 2026.
Built from these letters
HARDLY starts with H and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read ADHLRY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Also seen on Day 33
Could you have found HARDLY?
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 33 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER