The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ANCIENT
Definition of ANCIENT
adjective
Having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age, very old.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English auncyen, from Old French ancien, from Vulgar Latin *anteānus, composed of Latin ante (“before”) + -ānus (adjective-forming suffix). The non-etymological excrescent /t/ is by analogy with the common ending -ent.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
33%
of traced words share this origin (9,487)
branch · 33% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, ANCIENT · 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.
ANCIENT in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 2 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 90, 18 August 2026. The most recent board was Day 140, 7 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 4 days.
First found by a player on Day 90, 18 August 2026.
Built from these letters
ANCIENT starts with A and ends with T. Sorted, its letters read ACEINNT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. N appears more than once.
Words that start ANCIEN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found ANCIENT?
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 90 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER