The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HOLPEN
Definition of HOLPEN
verb
past participle of help
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English holpen, yholpen (past participle of helpen (“to help”)), from Old English ġeholpen (past participle of helpan (“to help”)), from Proto-Germanic *hulpanaz (past participle of *helpaną (“to help”)). More at help. Cognate with Dutch geholpen (“holpen”) and German geholfen (“holpen”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
6th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
4.7%
of traced words share this origin (3,911)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Its etymology also names Dutch.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
HOLPEN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 17 boards so far. 17 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 41, 30 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 156, 23 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 10 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 41, 30 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
HOLPEN starts with H and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read EHLNOP - 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.
Also seen on Day 41
Could you have found HOLPEN?
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 41 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER