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LIKEN
Definition of LIKEN
verb
Followed by to or (archaic) unto: to regard or state that (someone or something) is like another person or thing; to compare.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English liknen (“to be comparable; to compare (often disparagingly); to make (someone) equal to another person; to regard (something) as equal to another thing; to regard (something) as likely; to resemble; to take (something) as a substitute; to apply, be adapted or suitable; to tend (to sin)”) [and other forms], from liken (“to be comparable; to compare; to be appropriate; to form”), from lik (“alike, analogous, similar; appropriate, suitable; equal; homogeneous; identical, the same; indicative; likely (to be or do something), probable; possible; simultaneous; more or most like (?)”) + -en (suffix forming infinitives of verbs). Lik is derived from Old English ġelīċ (“like, similar”), from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz (“like, similar; equal”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leyg- (“like, similar; even, level”). The English word is analysable as like (adjective) + -en (suffix forming verbs with the sense ‘to make [adjective]’).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
8.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,625)
How it is built
Same root, LIKEN · 2 relatives in the game
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.
LIKEN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 15 boards so far. 16 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 24, 13 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 136, 3 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 14 days.
First found by a player on Day 24, 13 June 2026.
Built from these letters
LIKEN starts with L and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read EIKLN - 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 LIKEN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 24
Could you have found LIKEN?
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 24 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER