The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
BACKBONE
Definition of BACKBONE
noun
The series of vertebrae, separated by disks, that encloses and protects the spinal cord, and runs down the middle of the back in vertebrate animals.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English bakbon, bakebon, bac-bon; equivalent to back + bone. Compare the semantically analogous English ridgebone.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
BACKBONE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 110, 7 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 10 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 110, 7 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
BACKBONE starts with B and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ABBCEKNO - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. B appears more than once.
Words that start BACKBO
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found BACKBONE?
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 110 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER