The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HOVINGS
Definition of HOVINGS
Wiktionary has no entry for HOVINGS itself. This is its base word, HOVE.
verb
To remain suspended in air, water etc.; to float, to hover.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
The origin recorded for HOVE.
From Middle English hoven (“to linger, wait, hover, move aside, entertain, cherish, foster”), from Old English *hofian (“to receive into one's house”), from Proto-Germanic *hufōną (“to house, lodge”), from Proto-Germanic *hufą (“hill, height, farm, dwelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *keup- (“to arch, bend, buckle”). Cognate with Old Frisian hovia (“to receive into one's home, entertain”), Old Dutch hoven (“to receive into one's home, entertain”). Related to Old English hof (“court, house, dwelling”). More at hovel.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
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 (12,230)
How it is built
Its etymology also names Dutch.
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.
HOVINGS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 4 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 156, 23 October 2026. The most recent board was Day 174, 10 November 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 156, 23 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
HOVINGS starts with H and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read GHINOSV - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Could you have found HOVINGS?
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 156 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER