The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
BARB
Definition of BARB
noun
The point that stands backward in an arrow, fishhook, etc., to prevent it from being easily extracted. Hence: Anything which stands out with a sharp point obliquely or crosswise to something else.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English barbe, from Middle French barbe, from Old French barbe (“beard, beard-like element”). Doublet of beard.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
9th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
2.9%
of traced words share this origin (873)
branch · 15.5% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, BARB · 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.
BARB in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 151, 18 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 151, 18 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
BARB starts with B and ends with B. Sorted, its letters read ABBR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. B appears more than once.
Words that start BARB
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found BARB?
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 151 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER