The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CARTELS
Definition of CARTELS
noun
plural of cartel
noun
A group of businesses or nations that collude to limit competition within an industry or market.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
CARTELS inherits its ancestry from its root, CARTEL.
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
30.6%
of traced words share this origin (24,861)
branch · 30.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, CARTEL · 5 relatives 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.
CARTELS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 13 boards so far. 14 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 84, 12 August 2026. The most recent board was Day 164, 31 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 84, 12 August 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CARTELS starts with C and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read ACELRST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
6 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start CARTEL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found CARTELS?
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 84 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER