The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
BRISTLE
Definition of BRISTLE
noun
A stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English bristil, bristel, brustel, from Old English bristl, byrst, *brystl, *byrstel, from Proto-West Germanic *burstilu, diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *bursti, from Proto-Germanic *burstiz (compare Dutch borstel, German Borste (“boar's bristle”), Icelandic burst), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥stís (compare Middle Irish brostaid (“to goad, spur”), Latin fastīgium (“top”), Polish barszcz (“hogweed”)).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
9 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
38th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.2%
of traced words share this origin (123)
branch · 0.7% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, BRISTLE · 3 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.
BRISTLE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 26 boards so far. 44 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 23, 12 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 150, 17 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 23, 12 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
BRISTLE starts with B and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read BEILRST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start BRISTL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 23
Could you have found BRISTLE?
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 23 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER