The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
BANTER
Definition of BANTER
noun
Sharp, good-humoured, playful, typically spontaneous conversation.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
1670s as verb, 1680s as noun. The origin is unknown, possibly from London street slang; ostensibly as *bant + -er (frequentative suffix). Possibly an Anglo-Gaelicism from the Irish bean (“woman”), so that "banter" means "talk of women."
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Irish
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
23rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.4%
of traced words share this origin (330)
branch · 0.8% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, BANT · 6 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.
BANTER in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 47 boards so far. 82 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 1, 22 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 150, 17 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 12, 1 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
BANTER starts with B and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read ABENRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start BANTER
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 1
Could you have found BANTER?
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 1 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER