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MIDDLE
Definition of MIDDLE
noun
A centre, midpoint.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English myddel, middel, from Old English middel (“middle, centre, waist”), from Proto-Germanic *midlą, *midilą, *medalą (“middle”), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *midjō (“middle, midst”) (compare *midjaz (“mid, middle”, adjective)), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between, in the middle, middle”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Middel (“middle”), West Frisian mul (“middle”), Dutch middel (“means; medicine, cure”), German mittel (“middle”, adjective), Mittel (“means; medicament, remedy”, noun), Luxembourgish Mëttel (“means, method; medicament”), Vilamovian mytuł (“middle”), Yiddish מיטל (mitl, “middle”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk middel (“means”), Icelandic meðal (“average; means, medicine”), Swedish medel (“average, mean, middle”). See also mid.
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 (2,636)
How it is built
Same root, MIDDLE · 3 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Yiddish.
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.
MIDDLE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 145, 12 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First found by a player on Day 145, 12 October 2026.
Built from these letters
MIDDLE starts with M and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read DDEILM - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. D 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 MIDDLE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found MIDDLE?
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 145 - and most players walked straight past it.
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