The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HORNET
Definition of HORNET
noun
Any large wasp of the genus Vespa, having a brown-and-yellow-striped body and the ability to inflict a serious sting.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English hernet, from Old English hyrnetu, hyrnete, from Proto-West Germanic *hurnutu, from Proto-Germanic *hurznutō (compare German Hornisse), alteration of Proto-Germanic *hursulǭ (compare Dutch horzel), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂sro- (“hornet”, literally “the one with horns (antennae)”), from *ḱerh₂- (“horn”) (compare Welsh creyryn (“gadfly”), Latin crābrō (“hornet”), Lithuanian širšė (“wasp”), Proto-Slavic *sьrxy (whence Old Church Slavonic сръшень (srŭšenĭ, “hornet”) and many others), Albanian grerë, grenzë (“wasp, hornet”)).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
7 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
44th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.1%
of traced words share this origin (57)
branch · 0.7% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, HORNET · 1 relative in the game
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.
HORNET in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 18 boards so far. 16 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 25, 14 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 159, 26 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 25, 14 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
HORNET starts with H and ends with T. Sorted, its letters read EHNORT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Also seen on Day 25
Could you have found HORNET?
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 25 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER