The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
COMB
Definition of COMB
noun
A toothed implement: A toothed implement for grooming the hair or (formerly) for keeping it in place. A machine used in separating choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers. The toothed plate at the top and bottom of an escalator that prevents objects getting trapped between the moving stairs and fixed landings. A toothed tool used for chasing screws on work in a lathe; a chaser. The notched scale of a wire micrometer. The collector of an electrical machine, usually resembling a comb. A toothed plate used for creating wells in agar gels for electrophoresis. A toothed wooden pick used to push the weft thread tightly against the previous pass of thread to create a tight weave. One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen in scorpions, with which they comb substrate. A ctene.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English comb, from Old English camb (“comb”), from Proto-West Germanic *kamb, from Proto-Germanic *kambaz (“comb”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“tooth”), a doublet of cam. The verb is derived from the noun and displaced the older verb kemb. Compare Saterland Frisian Koum, Swedish/Dutch kam, Danish kam, Norwegian kam, German Kamm; also Tocharian B keme, Lithuanian žam̃bas (“sharp edge”), Old Church Slavonic зѫбъ (zǫbŭ), Albanian dhëmb, Ancient Greek γομφίος (gomphíos, “backtooth, molar”), Sanskrit जम्भ (jambha)).
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.
COMB in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 10 boards so far. 28 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 9, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 120, 17 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 9, 29 May 2026.
Built from these letters
COMB starts with C and ends with B. Sorted, its letters read BCMO - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start COMB
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 9
Could you have found COMB?
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 9 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER