The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CARBUNCLE
Definition of CARBUNCLE
noun
A deep-red or fiery colored garnet or other dark red precious stone, especially when cut cabochon.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English carbuncle, charbocle, from Old French carbuncle, charbuncle, from Latin carbunculus (“a small coal; a reddish kind of precious stone; a kind of tumor”), diminutive of carbō (“a coal, charcoal”). Doublet of Garfinkel and Garfunkel.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
33%
of traced words share this origin (9,424)
branch · 33% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, CARBUNCLE · 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.
CARBUNCLE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far. 13 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 137, 4 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 137, 4 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CARBUNCLE starts with C and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ABCCELNRU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. C appears more than once.
Words that start CARBUN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found CARBUNCLE?
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 137 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER