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TARN
Definition of TARN
noun
A small mountain lake, especially in Northern England.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English terne, tarne (“lake; pond, pool”), from Old Norse tjǫrn (“a small lake without tributaries”), from Proto-Germanic *ternō (“water hole”), perhaps related to *turnaz (“bitter, embittered”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to separate, split; to crack, shatter”). The word is cognate with Danish tjern, Faroese tjørn (“pond”), Icelandic tjörn (“pond”), Norwegian Bokmål tjern (“small forest or mountain lake”) (Norwegian Nynorsk tjern, tjørn), Swedish tjärn (“small forest lake”).
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
14.3%
of traced words share this origin (11,259)
How it is built
Same root, TARN · 1 relative in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish.
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.
TARN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 64 boards so far. 128 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 18, 7 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 155, 22 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 4 days.
First found by a player on Day 18, 7 June 2026.
Built from these letters
TARN starts with T and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read ANRT - 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 TARN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 18
Could you have found TARN?
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 18 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER