The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HUMMEL
Definition of HUMMEL
noun
A stag that has failed to grow antlers; a cow that has not developed horns.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Probably from Middle English hamelen (“to maim, mutilate; to cut short”), from Old English hamelian (“to hamstring, mutilate”), from Proto-Germanic *hamalōną, *hamlōną (“to mutilate”), from Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“hornless; mutilated”). Cognate with Dutch hamel (“wether”), English hamble, Low German hommel, hummel (“an animal lacking horns”), humlich, dialectal hommlich (“lacking horns”), Bavarian humlet (“lacking horns”), German hammeln, hämmeln (“to geld”), Icelandic hamla (“to maim, mutilate”). OxfordDictionaries.com suggests that the “ear of grain with its awns removed” sense preceded the “animal without antlers or horns” sense.
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 (12,132)
How it is built
Same root, HUMMEL · 7 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Dutch, Icelandic.
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.
HUMMEL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 3 boards so far. 10 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 153, 20 October 2026. The most recent board was Day 167, 3 November 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 153, 20 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
HUMMEL starts with H and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read EHLMMU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. M appears more than once, including a double letter.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start HUMMEL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found HUMMEL?
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 153 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER