The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CONUNDRUM
Definition of CONUNDRUM
noun
A difficult question or riddle, especially one using a play on words in the answer.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
A word of unknown origin with several variants, gaining popularity for its burlesque imitation of scholastic Latin, as hocus-pocus or panjandrum. If there is more to its origin than a nonce coinage, Anatoly Liberman suggests the best theory is that connecting it with the Conimbricenses, 16th c. scholastic commentaries on Aristotle by the Jesuits of Coimbra which indulge heavily in arguments relying on multiple significations of words.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Latin
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
30.6%
of traced words share this origin (25,330)
branch · 30.6% of traced words
How it is built
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
CONUNDRUM in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 166, 2 November 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 166, 2 November 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CONUNDRUM starts with C and ends with M. Sorted, its letters read CDMNNORUU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. N and U appear more than once.
Words that start CONUND
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found CONUNDRUM?
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 166 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER