The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
BACTERIUM
Definition of BACTERIUM
noun
A single-celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From New Latin bactērium, from Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion, “small staff”), from βακτηρία (baktēría).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Ancient Greek
- Latin
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
12.2%
of traced words share this origin (9,517)
branch · 12.2% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, BACTERIUM · 4 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.
BACTERIUM in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 40 boards so far. 130 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 9, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 157, 24 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 9, 29 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
BACTERIUM starts with B and ends with M. Sorted, its letters read ABCEIMRTU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start BACTER
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 9
Could you have found BACTERIUM?
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 9 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER