The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
LOUSE
Definition of LOUSE
noun
A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English lous, lows, lowse, from Old English lūs, from Proto-West Germanic *lūs, from Proto-Germanic *lūs, from Proto-Indo-European *lewH-. Cognate with West Frisian lûs, Dutch luis, German Low German Luus, German Laus, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish lus, Faroese and Icelandic lús; also Welsh llau (“lice”), Tocharian B luwo, maybe Sanskrit यूका (yūkā).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
8.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,622)
How it is built
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, Sanskrit, Swedish, Welsh.
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.
LOUSE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 83 boards so far. 222 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 17, 6 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 146, 13 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 17, 6 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
LOUSE starts with L and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ELOSU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start LOUSE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 17
Could you have found LOUSE?
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 17 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER