The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CYCLE
Definition of CYCLE
noun
An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English cicle (“fixed length period of years”), from Late Latin cyclus, from Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”), from Proto-Hellenic *kúklos, *kʷókʷlos, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos (“circle, wheel”). Doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cyclus, kike, and wheel (see there for more).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
9.1%
of traced words share this origin (2,383)
How it is built
Same root, CYCLE · 3 relatives in the game
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.
CYCLE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 131, 28 September 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 131, 28 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CYCLE starts with C and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read CCELY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. C appears more than once.
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 CYCLE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found CYCLE?
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 131 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER