The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CALQUE
Definition of CALQUE
noun
A word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From French calque (“calque”, literally “copy, tracing”), from calquer (“to copy, trace”) (whence also calk), itself borrowed from Italian calcare, from Latin calcāre (“to tread”). Doublet of calcate and calcation.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
33.1%
of traced words share this origin (10,004)
branch · 33.1% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, CALQUE · 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.
CALQUE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 12 boards so far. 40 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 4 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
CALQUE starts with C and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ACELQU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram. It uses Q - among the least common letters in written English.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Also seen on Day 23
Could you have found CALQUE?
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