The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ARCHAIC
Definition of ARCHAIC
noun
The prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American‐paleolithic’, etc.) of human presence in the Western Hemisphere, and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From archaism (“ancient or obsolete phrase or expression”) or from French archaïque, ultimately from Ancient Greek ἀρχαϊκός (arkhaïkós, “old-fashioned”), from ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “from the beginning, antiquated, ancient, old”), from ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “beginning, origin”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to be first”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to begin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin, rule, command”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
9.1%
of traced words share this origin (2,408)
How it is built
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.
ARCHAIC in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 131, 28 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 131, 28 September 2026.
Built from these letters
ARCHAIC starts with A and ends with C. Sorted, its letters read AACCHIR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. A and C appear more than once.
Words that start ARCHAI
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found ARCHAIC?
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 131 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER