The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CURTAIN
Definition of CURTAIN
noun
A piece of cloth covering a window, bed, etc. to offer privacy and keep out light.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English curtine, from Old French cortine, from Late Latin cōrtīna (“curtain”), a calque from Ancient Greek.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
12.6%
of traced words share this origin (3,695)
branch · 12.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, CURTAIN · 2 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.
CURTAIN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 12 boards so far. 14 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 28, 17 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 140, 7 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 7 days.
First found by a player on Day 28, 17 June 2026.
Built from these letters
CURTAIN starts with C and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read ACINRTU - 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 CURTAI
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 28
Could you have found CURTAIN?
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 28 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER