The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HOUSE
Definition of HOUSE
noun
A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English hous, hus, from Old English hūs (“dwelling, shelter, house”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūs, from Proto-Germanic *hūsą (“house”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kews-, from *(s)kewH- (“to cover, hide”). More at hose. Eclipsed non-native Middle English mees, meson, measoun (“house”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman mes, mies, meis, maisun (“house”). The uncommon plural form housen is from Middle English husen, housen. (The Old English nominative plural was simply hūs.) Cognate with Scots hoose, oos (“house”), Yola heouse, houze, howze (“house”), North Frisian hüs (“house”), Saterland Frisian Huus, Húus (“house”), West Frisian hûs (“house”), Alemannic German hous, hus, husch, hüs, hüüsch (“house”), Bavarian, Cimbrian, Mòcheno haus (“house”), Central Franconian Haus, Hous, Huus (“home”), Dutch huis (“house”), Dutch Low Saxon hoes, huus (“house”), German Haus, Hauß (“house”), German Low German Huus (“house”), Limburgish hoes, Huus (“house”), Luxembourgish Haus (“house”), Vilamovian haojs, haus, hoüz (“house”), Yiddish הויז (hoyz, “house”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hus (“house”), Elfdalian aus (“house”), Faroese and Icelandic hús (“house”), Crimean Gothic hus (“house”); also Cornish kudha (“to conceal, hide”), Welsh cuddio (“to hide”), Latin cutis (“human skin; hide, leather”), Ancient Greek κεύθω (keúthō, “to cover, hide”), Tocharian A kāc (“hide, skin”), Sanskrit स्कुनाति (skunāti, “to cover”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Sanskrit
- Ancient Greek
- Latin
- Welsh
- Icelandic
- Swedish
- Norwegian
- Danish
- Yiddish
- Dutch
- Scots
- Anglo-Norman
- Proto-Indo-European
- Proto-Germanic
- Old English
- Middle English
- English
16 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
14th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.9%
of traced words share this origin (254)
branch · 1.4% of traced words
How it is built
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
HOUSE in OUTLIER
It has fitted 3 boards so far. 151 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 76, 4 August 2026. The most recent board was Day 146, 13 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First found by a player on Day 6, 27 May 2026.
Built from these letters
HOUSE starts with H and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EHOSU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start HOUSE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found HOUSE?
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 76 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER