The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
BALE
Definition of BALE
noun
Evil, especially considered as an active force for destruction or death.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English bale (“evil”), from Old English bealu, from Proto-West Germanic *balu, from Proto-Germanic *balwą. Cognate with Low German bal- (“bad, ill”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌻𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (balweins, “torture”), Old High German balo (“destruction”), Old Norse bǫl (“disaster”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
6th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
4.7%
of traced words share this origin (3,724)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, BALE · 3 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Old Norse.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
BALE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 20 boards so far. 36 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 27, 16 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 151, 18 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 8 days.
First found by a player on Day 27, 16 June 2026.
Built from these letters
BALE starts with B and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ABEL - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
4 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start BALE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 27
Could you have found BALE?
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 27 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER