The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CANONICAL
Definition of CANONICAL
adjective
Present in a canon, religious or otherwise.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English canonycal, from Medieval Latin canōnicālis. By surface analysis, canon + -ical.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Latin
- Middle English
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
30.7%
of traced words share this origin (24,176)
branch · 30.7% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, CANONICAL · 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.
CANONICAL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 139, 6 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 20 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 139, 6 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CANONICAL starts with C and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AACCILNNO - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. C, A and N appear more than once.
Words that start CANONI
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found CANONICAL?
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 139 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER