The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HORSEFLY
Definition of HORSEFLY
noun
Any of several medium to large flies, of the family Tabanidae, that suck the blood of mammals (not to be confused with Stomoxys calcitrans, the stable fly, or dog fly).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Other senses
HORSEFLY carries 4 further meanings.
noun
Any of numerous large biting tabanid flies, the females of which feed on the blood of various mammals.
noun
A hexachætous dipterous insect, as Tabanus bovinus and other species of the family Tabanidæ, of which the females have a piercing proboscis, and are extremely annoying to horses and cattle. Also called breeze, breeze-fly, and gadfly. See cuts under breeze and gadfly.
noun
A pupiparous dipterous insect of the family Hippoboscidæ; a forest-fly or tick-fly. Also called horse-tick.
noun
A dichætous dipterous insect of the family Œstridæ; a true bot-fly, as the horse-bot, Gasterophilus equi. See cut under bot-fly.
Where it comes from
From Middle English horse fliȝe, equivalent to horse + fly.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Middle English
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
4th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
6.2%
of traced words share this origin (5,064)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, HORSEFLY · 1 relative in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
HORSEFLY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 56 boards so far. 179 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 24, 13 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 166, 2 November 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 24, 13 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
HORSEFLY starts with H and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read EFHLORSY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that mean much the same
Near-synonyms of HORSEFLY. Not interchangeable at the board - the grid decides that - but close in meaning.
Words that start HORSEF
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 24
Could you have found HORSEFLY?
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 24 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER