The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
COMET
Definition of COMET
noun
A small Solar System body consisting mainly of volatile ice, dust and particles of rock whose very eccentric solar orbit periodically brings it close enough to the Sun that the ice vaporises to form an atmosphere, or coma, which may be blown by the solar wind to produce a visible tail.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English comete, partly from Old English comēta and partly from Old French comete, both from Latin comētēs, from Ancient Greek κομήτης (komḗtēs, “longhaired”), short for ἀστὴρ κομήτης ([astēr] komētēs, "longhaired [star])" and referring to the tail of a comet, from κόμη (kómē, “hair”). Compare English faxed star and Latin crīnīta stēlla (“comet”, literally “(long) haired star”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
12.4%
of traced words share this origin (10,655)
branch · 12.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, COMET · 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.
COMET in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 24 boards so far. 37 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 3, 24 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 175, 11 November 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 3, 24 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
COMET starts with C and ends with T. Sorted, its letters read CEMOT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
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 COMET
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 3
Could you have found COMET?
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 3 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER