The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
POTHOLINGS
Definition of POTHOLINGS
Wiktionary has no entry for POTHOLINGS itself. This is its base word, POTHOLE.
noun
A shallow pit or other edged depression in a road's surface, especially when caused by erosion, weather or traffic.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
The origin recorded for POTHOLE.
From dialectal pot (“pit, hollow, cavity”) + hole. The "cave" senses, attested since at least 1809 (as pot-hole), may be from Middle English pot, potte (“a deep hole for a mine, or from peat-digging”), of uncertain origin; perhaps related to English pit, pote, or pot. Compare Scots pott, patt (“a pit dug in the ground; coalpit”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Middle English
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
4th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
6.1%
of traced words share this origin (4,784)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Its etymology also names Scots.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
POTHOLINGS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 2 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 47, 6 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 62, 21 July 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 93 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 47, 6 July 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
POTHOLINGS starts with P and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read GHILNOOPST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. O appears more than once.
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 POTHOL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 47
Could you have found POTHOLINGS?
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 47 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER