The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HOLLY
Definition of HOLLY
noun
Any of various shrubs or (mostly) small trees, of the genus Ilex, either evergreen or deciduous, used as decoration especially at Christmas.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English holly, holi, holie, a shortened variation of holin, holyn (> English dialectal hollen, holm), from Old English holeġn, holen (“holly; prince, protector”), from Proto-West Germanic *hulis (“holly”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂- (“to beat, break”). Cognate with Scots holin, hollin, holyn (“holly”), Dutch hulst (“holly”), German Hulst (“holly”), French houx ("holly" < Germanic), Danish hylver (“holly”), Welsh celyn (“holly”), Russian ко́лос (kólos, “ear of wheat”), Albanian kalli (“straw, chaff”), Latin culmus (“stalk, stem”), Sanskrit कटम्ब (kaṭamba, “arrow”), Old Church Slavonic класъ (klasŭ, “ear of grain”).
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.
HOLLY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 76, 4 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 47 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 76, 4 August 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
HOLLY starts with H and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read HLLOY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. L appears more than once, including a double letter.
Words that start HOLLY
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found HOLLY?
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