The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HOLK
Definition of HOLK
noun
A hollow cavity.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English holk, from Old English holc, holoc (“hole, cavity”), from Proto-West Germanic *holuk, from Proto-Germanic *hulukaz (“a hollow”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide”). Equivalent to hole + -ock (diminutive ending). Cognate with Low German holke, hölke (“small hole”), German Holk (“a type of flat-bottomed barge”), Swedish holk (“nest, birdhouse”), dialectal Norwegian holk, hylke (“wooden barrel, cask”), Icelandic hólkur (“hollow cylinder or tube”). Related to hulk.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
HOLK in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 3 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 42, 1 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 97, 25 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 4 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 42, 1 July 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
HOLK starts with H and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read HKLO - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start HOLK
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 42
Could you have found HOLK?
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 42 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER