The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DETAINER
Definition of DETAINER
noun
The right to keep a person, or a person's goods or property, against his will; a type of custody.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Anglo-Norman detener, from Old French detenir. By surface analysis, detain + -er (action noun suffix). First attested in the 17th century.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Old French
- Anglo-Norman
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
9th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
2.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,286)
branch · 12.9% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, DETAIN · 6 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.
DETAINER in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 8 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 34, 23 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 137, 4 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 19 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 34, 23 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
DETAINER starts with D and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read ADEEINRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. E 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 DETAIN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found DETAINER?
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 34 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER