The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ANCESTOR
Definition of ANCESTOR
noun
One from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a forefather; a forebear.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English ancestre, auncestre, ancessour; the first forms from Old French ancestre (modern French ancêtre), from the Latin nominative antecessor (“one who goes before”); the last form from Old French ancessor, from Latin antecessōrem, accusative of antecessor, from antecēdō (“to go before”) + -tor (“-er”), from ante- (“before”) + cēdō (“to go”). See cede, and compare with antecessor.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
33.1%
of traced words share this origin (9,860)
branch · 33.1% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, ANCESTOR · 2 relatives in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
ANCESTOR in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 10 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 36, 25 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 130, 27 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 22 days.
First found by a player on Day 36, 25 June 2026.
Built from these letters
ANCESTOR starts with A and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read ACENORST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start ANCEST
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 36
Could you have found ANCESTOR?
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 36 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER