The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DUSK
Definition of DUSK
adjective
Tending to darkness or blackness; moderately dark or black; dusky.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English dosk, dusk(e) (“dusky”, adj.), from Old English dox (“dark, swarthy”), from Proto-Germanic *duskaz (“dark, smoky”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwes-, related to *dʰewh₂- (“smoke, mist, haze”). Cognate to Latin fuscus (“dark, dusky”), Sanskrit धूसर (dhūsara, “dust-colored”), Old Irish donn (“dark”). Related to dye, dust and dun (see these for more). Doublet of fuscous.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,595)
How it is built
Same root, DUSK · 7 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Irish, Latin, Sanskrit.
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.
DUSK in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 11 boards so far. 14 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 42, 1 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 164, 31 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 42, 1 July 2026.
Built from these letters
DUSK starts with D and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read DKSU - 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 DUSK
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 42
Could you have found DUSK?
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 42 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER