The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ADZE
Definition of ADZE
noun
A cutting tool that has a curved blade set at a right angle to the handle and is used in shaping wood.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English adse, adese, from Old English adesa, eadesa (compare the oldest forms: adosa, adosan), assumed from Proto-Germanic *adisô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃edʰḗs (compare Hittite [script needed] (atešša, “axe, hatchet”)).
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 (11,343)
How it is built
Same root, ADZE · 5 relatives in the game
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.
ADZE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 10 boards so far. 165 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 21, 10 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 160, 27 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 21, 10 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
ADZE starts with A and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ADEZ - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram. It uses Z - among the least common letters in written English.
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 ADZE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 21
Could you have found ADZE?
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 21 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER