The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CANDLEPIN
Definition of CANDLEPIN
noun
A kind of cylindrical tenpin used in a North American regional form of bowling.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From candle + pin, from its shape.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
How it is built
Same root, CANDLEPIN · 1 relative 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.
CANDLEPIN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 172, 8 November 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 172, 8 November 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CANDLEPIN starts with C and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read ACDEILNNP - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. N 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.
Words that start CANDLE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found CANDLEPIN?
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 172 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER