The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CANKERWORM
Definition of CANKERWORM
noun
Either of two caterpillars, the larvae of geometrid moths, that are destructive to fruit, buds and leaves.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From canker + worm.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
How it is built
Same root, CANKERWORM · 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.
CANKERWORM in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 2 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 140, 7 October 2026. The most recent board was Day 172, 8 November 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 140, 7 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CANKERWORM starts with C and ends with M. Sorted, its letters read ACEKMNORRW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. R appears more than once.
Words that start CANKER
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found CANKERWORM?
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 140 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER