The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DEADLINE
Definition of DEADLINE
noun
A time limit in the form of a date on or before which something must be completed.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, early usage refers to lines that do not move, such as one used in angling. Slightly later American usage refers to a boundary in a prison which prisoners must not cross. There is only indirect evidence that the sense of "due date" may be connected with this use of the term in prison camps during the American Civil War, when it referred to a physical line or boundary beyond which prisoners were shot. In 1904, in a report from the US Department of Commerce and Labor, the term is used for "minimum work goals" (and in contrast to bonus line): for example, as a typographer the line could be 18,000 ems per day; should one not cross this line, then that could have negative consequences. In 1917, the term is attested as a printing term for a guideline on the bed of a printing press beyond which text will not print. Three years later, the term is found in print in the sense of "time limit" in the closely connected publishing industry, indicating the time after which material would not make it into a newspaper or periodical.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
How it is built
Same root, DEADLINE · 1 relative 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.
DEADLINE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 2 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 131, 28 September 2026. The most recent board was Day 132, 29 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
DEADLINE starts with D and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ADDEEILN - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. D and E appear more than once.
Words that start DEADLI
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found DEADLINE?
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