The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ECHELON
Definition of ECHELON
noun
A level or rank in an organization, profession, or society.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from French échelon (“rung; echelon”), from échelle (“ladder”) + -on (diminutive suffix). Échelle is derived from Latin scāla (“ladder”), from scandō (“to ascend, climb”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.3%
of traced words share this origin (11,259)
How it is built
Same root, ECHELON · 1 relative in the game
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.
ECHELON in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 33 boards so far. 50 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 154, 21 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 4 days.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
ECHELON starts with E and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read CEEHLNO - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. E appears more than once.
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 ECHELO
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found ECHELON?
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