The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DARNEL
Definition of DARNEL
noun
Any of the genus Lolium of grasses, especially as a weed in wheat fields.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English darnel, dernel, from Old Northern French darnelle (> dialectal French dernelle, darnette), of Germanic origin, possibly Proto-West Germanic *darjan (“to harm, injure”). Displaced native Old English boþen. Related to Walloon darne, derne (“stunned, dazed, drunk”), Middle Dutch verdarnt, verdaernt (“stunned, dumbfounded, angry”). The association with being dazed or drunkenness is due to the well-known intoxicating effects of the plant.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- German
- French
- Middle English
- English
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
8th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.3%
of traced words share this origin (2,773)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, DARNEL · 1 relative in the game
Its etymology also names Middle Dutch, Old English.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
DARNEL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 2 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 141, 8 October 2026. The most recent board was Day 154, 21 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 15 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 154, 21 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
DARNEL starts with D and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read ADELNR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
5 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Could you have found DARNEL?
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 141 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER