The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.

DISTANCE

/ˈdɪst(ə)n(t)s/8 letters

Definition of DISTANCE

noun

An amount of space between points (often geographical points), usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Where it comes from

From Middle English distance, distaunce, destance (“disagreement, dispute; discrimination; armed conflict; hostility; trouble; space between two points; time interval”), from Anglo-Norman distance, distaunce, destance, Middle French distance, and Old French destance, destaunce, distaunce (“debate; difference, distinction; discord, quarrel; dispute; space between two points; time interval”) (modern French distance), and directly from their etymon Latin distantia (“difference, diversity; distance, remoteness; space between two points”) (whence also Late Latin distantia (“disagreement; discrepancy; gap, opening; time interval”)), from distāns (“being distant; standing apart”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Distāns is the present active participle of distō (“to be distant; to stand apart; to differ”), from dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart, asunder; in two’) + stō (“to stand”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)). The verb is derived from the noun.

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

Rarity score
Withheld
Revealed only in play
Tier
Withheld
Find it yourself

OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.

DISTANCE in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 16 boards so far. 26 players have found it across Outlier's history.

Day 1Day 95
Its 16 boards, across 95 finished boards · taller bars are busier boards
16
Boards found on
7
First board
92
Latest board
25
Longest gap, days

It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 92, 20 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.

First ever to find it

mscott

on Day 7, 28 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers

Built from these letters

DISTANCE
8
Letters
3
Vowels
5
Consonants
8
Different letters
2
Longest consonant run
1
Longest vowel run

DISTANCE starts with D and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ACDEINST - 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.

Words that start DISTAN

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

DISTANTDISTANCEDDISTANCESDISTANTLYDISTANCINGDISTANTNESSDISTANTNESSES

Could you have found DISTANCE?

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 7 - and most players walked straight past it.

Play today's OUTLIER

Share DISTANCE