The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DOWELS
Definition of DOWELS
noun
plural of dowel
noun
A pin, or block, of wood or metal, fitting into holes in the abutting portions of two pieces, and being partly in one piece and partly in the other, to keep them in their proper relative position.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
DOWELS inherits its ancestry from its root, DOWEL.
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
8.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,625)
How it is built
Same root, DOWEL · 4 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Dutch, Middle Low German.
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.
DOWELS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 43 boards so far. 78 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 24, 13 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 150, 17 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 24, 13 June 2026.
Built from these letters
DOWELS starts with D and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read DELOSW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
4 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Also seen on Day 24
Could you have found DOWELS?
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 24 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER