The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
YOWL
Definition of YOWL
noun
A prolonged, loud cry, like the sound of an animal; a wail; a howl.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English youlen, goulen, from Old Norse gaula (“to low, bellow, howl, scream”), related to Icelandic gaula (“to yell, howl, roar”), Faroese geyla (“to bawl, squall, shout, yell, bellow”), Norwegian gaule (“to roar, howl, whine, weep noisily”), dialectal Swedish gjöla, Scots gowl (“to howl, yell, roar”), Shetlandic Scots gjol. Initial y- possibly influenced by Middle English yollen, yellen (“to yell”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Old Norse
- Middle English
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
14th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
1%
of traced words share this origin (776)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, YOWL · 5 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Icelandic, Norwegian, Scots, Swedish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
YOWL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 30 boards so far. 50 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 31, 20 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 156, 23 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 31, 20 June 2026.
Built from these letters
YOWL starts with Y and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read LOWY - 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 YOWL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 31
Could you have found YOWL?
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 31 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER