The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HEADWAY
Definition of HEADWAY
noun
A movement ahead or forward.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Partly from Middle English hauedwei, from Old English hēafodweġ (“head-road, main-road”); partly as a shortening of ahead-way, the source of the nautical sense. By surface analysis, head + way.
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 59 source languages in OUTLIER
4.1%
of traced words share this origin (1,257)
branch · 22.3% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, HEADWAY · 1 relative 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.
HEADWAY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 12 boards so far. 17 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 21, 10 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 149, 16 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 21, 10 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
HEADWAY starts with H and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read AADEHWY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. A appears more than once.
Words that start HEADWA
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 21
Could you have found HEADWAY?
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 21 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER