The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DELAYS
Definition of DELAYS
noun
plural of delay
noun
A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
DELAYS inherits its ancestry from its root, DELAY.
Line of descent
6 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.4%
of traced words share this origin (11,223)
How it is built
Same root, DELAY · 4 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Old English.
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.
DELAYS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 5 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 50, 9 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 99, 27 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 59 days.
First found by a player on Day 50, 9 July 2026.
Built from these letters
DELAYS starts with D and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read ADELSY - 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.
Also seen on Day 50
Could you have found DELAYS?
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 50 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER