The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HUMBUG
Definition of HUMBUG
noun
A hoax, jest, or prank.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Origin unknown; the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that “the facts as to its origin appear to have been lost, even before the word became common enough to excite attention”. It has been suggested that the word possibly derives from hummer (“(slang) An obvious lie”), or from hum (“(dialectal and slang) to cajole; delude; impose on”) + bug (“a goblin, a spectre”). In his Slang Dictionary (1864), English bibliophile and publisher John Camden Hotten (1832–1873) suggested a link to the name of the German city of Hamburg, “from which town so many false bulletins and reports came during the war in the last century”, or alternatively a derivation from ambage. Hotten also said he had traced the earliest occurrence of the word to the title page of Ferdinando Killigrew’s book The Universal Jester (see quotations), which he dated to about 1735–1740. This dating has therefore been adopted by other dictionaries. However, the OED dates the word to about 1750, as the earliest edition of Killigrew’s work has been dated to 1754.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- German
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
8th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.3%
of traced words share this origin (2,743)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, HUMBUG · 5 relatives 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.
HUMBUG in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 29 boards so far. 90 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 27, 16 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 165, 1 November 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 27, 16 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
HUMBUG starts with H and ends with G. Sorted, its letters read BGHMUU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. U appears more than once.
Words that start HUMBUG
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 27
Could you have found HUMBUG?
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 27 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER