The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
HURDLE
Definition of HURDLE
noun
An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English hurdel, hirdel, herdel, hyrdel, from Old English hyrdel (“frame of intertwined twigs used as a temporary barrier”), diminutive of *hyrd, from Proto-Germanic *hurdiz, from Pre-Germanic *kr̥h₂tis, from Proto-Indo-European *kreh₂-. Cognate with Dutch horde, German Hürde.
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
14.4%
of traced words share this origin (11,191)
How it is built
Same root, HURDLE · 5 relatives in the game
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.
HURDLE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 18 boards so far. 35 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 33, 22 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 152, 19 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 4 days.
First found by a player on Day 33, 22 June 2026.
Built from these letters
HURDLE starts with H and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read DEHLRU - 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.
Words that start HURDLE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 33
Could you have found HURDLE?
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 33 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER