The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CESS
Definition of CESS
noun
An assessed tax, duty, or levy; billeting.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
For the first meaning below, the writings of Edmund Spenser, published 1633, point to a borrowing from Irish cís (“tax, tribute, cess, rent”), likely from Latin census. Other senses: Uncertain. Occurs in print at least as early as 1831, when Samuel Lover used the expression as one already long-established. He unambiguously stated the derivation of cess in the malediction bad cess to be an abbreviation of success. The OED speculated that it either was from success or from assessment meaning a military or governmental exaction. The verb is attested in Middle English (cessen).
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.
CESS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 90, 18 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 12 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 90, 18 August 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CESS starts with C and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read CESS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. S appears more than once, including a double letter.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start CESS
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found CESS?
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 90 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER