The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ACANTHUS
Definition of ACANTHUS
noun
A member of the genus Acanthus of herbaceous prickly plants with toothed leaves, (family Acanthaceae, order Lamiales (formerly Scrophulariales)) found in the south of Europe, Asia Minor, and India.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Latin acanthus, from Ancient Greek ἄκανθος (ákanthos, “thorn”), from ἀκή (akḗ, “point”) + ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower”). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “The relevant sense of ἄκανθος failed RFV.”)
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Ancient Greek
- Latin
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
12.6%
of traced words share this origin (3,724)
branch · 12.6% of traced words
How it is built
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
ACANTHUS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 29 boards so far. 43 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 58, 17 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 150, 17 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 58, 17 July 2026.
Built from these letters
ACANTHUS starts with A and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read AACHNSTU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. A appears more than once.
Words that start ACANTH
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 58
Could you have found ACANTHUS?
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 58 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER