The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DETAINS
Definition of DETAINS
verb
third-person singular simple present indicative of detain
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
DETAINS inherits its ancestry from its root, DETAIN.
Line of descent
- Old French
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
9th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
2.9%
of traced words share this origin (829)
branch · 15.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, DETAIN · 2 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
DETAINS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 7 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 25, 14 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 109, 6 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 32 days.
First found by a player on Day 25, 14 June 2026.
Also on
Built from these letters
DETAINS starts with D and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read ADEINST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
6 other words use 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.
Also seen on Day 25
Could you have found DETAINS?
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 25 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER