The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HOOKS
Definition of HOOKS
noun
plural of hook
noun
A rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
HOOKS inherits its ancestry from its root, HOOK.
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,787)
How it is built
Same root, HOOK · 7 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Scots.
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.
HOOKS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 3 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 14, 3 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 83, 11 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 85 days.
First found by a player on Day 14, 3 June 2026.
Built from these letters
HOOKS starts with H and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read HKOOS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. O appears more than once, including a double letter.
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 14
Could you have found HOOKS?
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 14 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER