The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CARVE
Definition of CARVE
verb
To cut.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English kerven, from Old English ceorfan, from Proto-West Germanic *kerban, from Proto-Germanic *kerbaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to scratch”). Cognate with West Frisian kerve, Dutch kerven, Low German karven, German kerben (“to notch”); also Old Prussian gīrbin (“number”), Old Church Slavonic жрѣбии (žrěbii, “lot, tallymark”), Ancient Greek γράφειν (gráphein, “to scratch, etch”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
CARVE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 4 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 2, 23 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 96, 24 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 2, 23 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CARVE starts with C and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ACERV - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start CARVE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 2
Could you have found CARVE?
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 2 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER