The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CALTROP
Definition of CALTROP
noun
A metal object, usually small, with spikes arranged so that, when thrown onto the ground, one always faces up as a threat to pedestrians, horses, and vehicles (also used as a heraldic charge).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Other senses
CALTROP carries 4 further meanings.
noun
Any of various plants bearing small spiny fruits, especially of the genera Tribulus and Kallstroemia.
noun
A metal device with four projecting spikes so arranged that when three of the spikes are on the ground, the fourth points upward, used as a hazard to pneumatic tires or to the hooves of horses.
To entangle with caltrops.
noun
Formerly, a military instrument with four iron points disposed in such a manner that, three of them being on the ground, the fourth pointed upward. Caltrops were scattered on the ground where an enemy's cavalry were to pass, to impede their progress by wounding the horses' feet.
Where it comes from
From Middle English calketrappe, from Old English calcatrippe, from Medieval Latin calcatrippa (“thistle”), from Latin calx or calcare (“to tread”) + trappa (“trap”).
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
30.6%
of traced words share this origin (24,817)
branch · 30.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, CALTROP · 5 relatives in the game
CALTROP in a sentence
“Speaking of mood, the play's climactic slaughterfest (in which solids, gases, liquids and something called a caltrop all prove excellent murder weapons) inevitably seems funny today.”
Theater review: Constellation Theatre's 'Women Beware Women', 2010
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
CALTROP in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 41 boards so far. 82 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 27, 16 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 158, 25 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 4 days.
First found by a player on Day 27, 16 June 2026.
Built from these letters
CALTROP starts with C and ends with P. Sorted, its letters read ACLOPRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that mean much the same
Near-synonyms of CALTROP. Not interchangeable at the board - the grid decides that - but close in meaning.
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 27
Could you have found CALTROP?
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 27 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER