The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CUDGEL
Definition of CUDGEL
noun
A short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English kuggel, from Old English cyċġel (“a large stick, cudgel”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuggil, from Proto-Germanic *kuggilaz (“a knobbed instrument”), derivative of Proto-Germanic *kuggǭ (“cog, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewgʰ- (“swelling, bow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bow, bend, arch, curve”), equivalent to cog + -el (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch coghele (“a stick with a rounded end”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.4%
of traced words share this origin (11,201)
How it is built
Same root, CUDGEL · 8 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Middle Dutch.
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
CUDGEL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 63 boards so far. 484 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 22, 11 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 157, 24 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 22, 11 June 2026.
Built from these letters
CUDGEL starts with C and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read CDEGLU - 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 CUDGEL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 22
Could you have found CUDGEL?
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 22 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER