The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DISTAFF
Definition of DISTAFF
noun
A device to which a bundle of natural fibres (often wool, flax, or cotton) is attached for temporary storage, before being drawn off gradually to spin thread. A traditional distaff is a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it (as indicated by the etymology of the word), but modern distaffs are often made of cords weighted with beads, and attached to the wrist.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English distaf (“distaff”), from Old English distæf (“distaff”), from *dis- (“bunch of flax”) (cognate with Middle Low German dise (“bunch of flax on a distaff”)) + stæf (“staff”) (from Proto-Germanic *stabaz (“staff, stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ-). Senses 3 and 5 (“anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only”; “a woman, or women considered as a group”) refer to the fact that spinning was traditionally done by women.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
9.1%
of traced words share this origin (2,408)
How it is built
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.
DISTAFF in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 132, 29 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 132, 29 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
DISTAFF starts with D and ends with F. Sorted, its letters read ADFFIST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. F appears more than once, including a double letter.
Words that start DISTAF
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found DISTAFF?
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 132 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER