The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HOSTAGE
Definition of HOSTAGE
noun
A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English hostage, ostage, from Old French hostage, ostage. This, in turn, is either from Old French hoste (“host”) + -age (in which case the sense development is from taking someone into "lodging" to taking them into "captivity", to applying the term to a captive), or is from Vulgar Latin obsidāticum (“condition of being held captive”), from Latin obses (“hostage, captive”), with the initial h- added under the influence of hoste or another word. Displaced native Old English ġīsl.
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.
HOSTAGE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 11 boards so far. 20 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 23, 12 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 101, 29 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 23, 12 June 2026.
Built from these letters
HOSTAGE starts with H and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read AEGHOST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start HOSTAG
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 23
Could you have found HOSTAGE?
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 23 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER