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HULK
Definition of HULK
noun
A large ship used for transportation; a large ship that is difficult to manoeuvre. A non-functional but floating ship, usually stripped of equipment and rigging, and often put to other uses such as accommodation or storage.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English hulk, hulke, holke (“hut; shed for hogs; type of ship; husk, pod, shell; large, clumsy person; a giant”) (probably reinforced by Middle Dutch hulk, huelc, and Middle Low German hulk, holk, hollek (“freighter, cargo ship, barge”)), from Old English hulc (“light ship; heavy, clumsy ship; cabin, hovel, hut”), from Proto-West Germanic *huluk, *hulik, from Proto-Germanic *hulukaz, *hulikaz (“something hollowed or dug out, cavity”), equivalent to hole/hollow + -ock. Cognate with Old High German holcho (“cargo or transport ship, barge”) (whence Middle High German holche, modern German Holk), Old Norse hólkr (“metal tube, ring”), dialectal Norwegian holk, hylke (“wooden barrel”), Middle English holken (“to dig out, gouge”). Relation to Medieval Latin hulcus (“ship”) is uncertain, as Old English may have borrowed from Latin or vice versa, but the form holcas rather points to borrowing from Ancient Greek ὁλκάς (holkás, “ship being towed; cargo ship, ship used for trading, holcad”) (compare Ancient Greek ἕλκω (hélkō, “to drag”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *selk- (“to draw, pull”)). See more at the Old English entry hulc. The verb is derived from the noun.
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.
HULK in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 10 boards so far. 14 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 115, 12 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First found by a player on Day 31, 20 June 2026.
Built from these letters
HULK starts with H and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read HKLU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start HULK
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found HULK?
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 7 - and most players walked straight past it.
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