The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HELD
Definition of HELD
verb
simple past and past participle of hold
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
HELD inherits its ancestry from its root, HOLD.
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.4%
of traced words share this origin (11,223)
How it is built
Same root, HOLD · 9 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Ancient Greek, Latin, Sanskrit.
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.
HELD in OUTLIER
It has fitted 2 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 76, 4 August 2026. The most recent board was Day 146, 13 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 11 days.
First found by a player on Day 26, 15 June 2026.
Built from these letters
HELD starts with H and ends with D. Sorted, its letters read DEHL - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start HELD
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found HELD?
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 76 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER