The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
COULD
Definition of COULD
verb
simple past of can
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English coude, couthe, cuthe, from Old English cūþe, past indicative and past subjunctive form of cunnan (“to be able”) (compare related cūþ, whence English couth). Cognate with German konnte, Swedish kunde. The -l- in the spelling was added in the early 16th century by analogy with should and would; this analogy formerly affected the pronunciation as well and was probably assisted by the tendency for /l/ to be lost in those words (and so not written, leading to shudd, wode, etc).
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.
COULD in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 21 boards so far. 31 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 30, 19 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 117, 14 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First found by a player on Day 30, 19 June 2026.
Built from these letters
COULD starts with C and ends with D. Sorted, its letters read CDLOU - 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.
Also seen on Day 30
Could you have found COULD?
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 30 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER