The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CANARD
Definition of CANARD
noun
A false or misleading report or story, especially if deliberately so.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from French canard (“duck, hoax”). The primary English meaning of canard comes from the Medieval French expression “vendre un canard à moitié”, which literally means “to sell half a duck” or “to half-sell a duck”. This was perhaps the punch line to a joke. Eventually the punch line came to stand for the joke and then finally the word alone stood for the whole concept. The story may perhaps have gone like this: A duck seller is successful and content as the only duck seller on a street, selling his ducks for eight francs each. A new duck seller moves in across the street who steals all the business by offering his ducks for seven francs each. Then a price war ensues, back and forth, until the new duck seller is down to three francs for a duck. The original duck seller is beside himself with worry and frustration, but finally he puts up a big sign that says, “Two francs” and then in small print at the bottom “for half a duck.” In this way, to half-sell ducks may have come to mean tricking people with something that is literally true but misleading. It has this same metaphorical meaning in French. Now in English, it simply means anything that is deliberately misleading, a hoax.
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.
CANARD in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 11 boards so far. 13 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 45, 4 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 102, 30 August 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 45, 4 July 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CANARD starts with C and ends with D. Sorted, its letters read AACDNR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. A appears more than once.
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 45
Could you have found CANARD?
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 45 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER