The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HEAR
Definition of HEAR
verb
To perceive sounds through the ear.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English har, heoren, her, here, heren, from Old English hēran, hīeran, hīran, hȳran (“to hear”), from Proto-West Germanic *hauʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hauzijaną (“to hear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ḱh₂owsyéti (“to be sharp-eared”), from *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) + *h₂ows- (“ear”) + *-yéti (denominative suffix). Cognate with North Frisian hear, hiar, hiir, hiire (“to hear”), Saterland Frisian heere, here (“to hear”), West Frisian hearre (“to hear”), Bavarian hearn (“to hear”), Central Franconian hüre (“to hear”), Cimbrian hòrran, höarn (“to hear”), Dutch horen (“to hear”), German and Low German hören (“to hear”), Luxembourgish héieren (“to hear”), Yiddish הערן (hern, “to hear”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål høre (“to hear”), Elfdalian ära (“to hear”), Faroese hoyra (“to hear”), Icelandic heyra (“to hear”), Norwegian Nynorsk haur, høra, høre, høyra, høyre (“to hear”), Swedish höra (“to hear”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hausjan, “to hear”); also Greek ακούγω (akoúgo), ακούω (akoúo, “to hear”), Italiot Greek κούω (koúo, “to hear”), Tocharian B āks- (“to awaken”).
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
14.3%
of traced words share this origin (11,343)
How it is built
Same root, HEAR · 7 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Yiddish.
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.
HEAR in OUTLIER
It has fitted 2 boards so far. 10 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 134, 1 October 2026. The most recent board was Day 140, 7 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 20 days.
First found by a player on Day 36, 25 June 2026.
Built from these letters
HEAR starts with H and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read AEHR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start HEAR
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found HEAR?
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