The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
BUOY
Definition of BUOY
noun
A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, indicate a navigational channel or for other purposes A lifebuoy; a life preserver.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English boy, boye, from Middle Dutch boeye (“float, buoy”), from Old French boue (“piece of wood or cork that floats above an anchor to indicate where it is anchored”) (modern French bouée), ultimately from Frankish *baukn (“beacon”), from Proto-Germanic *baukną. Doublet of beacon. Alternatively, and perhaps less likely (due to the unexplained shift in meaning), from Middle Dutch boeye (“shackle, fetter”), from Old French buie (“fetter, chain”), from Latin boia (“a (leather) collar, band, fetter”), from Ancient Greek βόεος (bóeos), βόειος (bóeios, “of ox-hide”), from βοῦς (boûs, “ox”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”). Noun sense 2 was coined by American linguist Scott K. Lindell in 2003.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
BUOY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 32 boards so far. 127 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 11, 31 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 111, 8 September 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 11, 31 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
BUOY starts with B and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read BOUY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start BUOY
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 11
Could you have found BUOY?
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 11 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER