The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ANVIL
Definition of ANVIL
noun
A heavy iron block used in the blacksmithing trade as a surface upon which metal can be struck and shaped.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English anfilt, anvelt, anfelt, from late Old English anfilt, anfilte, anfealt, from earlier onfilti (“anvil”), from Proto-West Germanic *anafalt (compare Middle Dutch anvilte, Low German Anfilts, Anefilt, Old High German anafalz), compound of *ana (“on”) + *falt (“beaten”) (compare German falzen (“to groove, fold, welt”), Swedish dialectal filta (“to beat”)), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂-t- (“shaken, beaten”) (compare Middle Irish lethar (“leather”), Latin pellō (“to beat, strike”), Ancient Greek πάλλω (pállō, “to toss, brandish”)), enlargement of Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- (“to stir, move”). More at felon.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
8 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
12.6%
of traced words share this origin (3,702)
branch · 12.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, ANVIL · 2 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Middle Dutch.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
ANVIL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 41 boards so far. 195 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 24, 13 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 142, 9 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First found by a player on Day 24, 13 June 2026.
Built from these letters
ANVIL starts with A and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AILNV - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start ANVIL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 24
Could you have found ANVIL?
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 24 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER