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EQUINOX
Definition of EQUINOX
noun
One of two times in the year (one in March and the other in September) when the length of the day and the night are equal, which occurs when the sun is directly overhead at the equator; this marks the beginning of spring in one hemisphere and autumn in the other.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English equinox, equinoxe, equynox (“one of the two periods in the year when the day and night are of equal length, equinox; either the zodiac sign Aries or Libra, in which the sun crosses the celestial equator”), from Old French equinoce, equinoxe (modern French équinoxe), or from its etymon Medieval Latin ēquinoxium, ēquinoctium, from Latin aequinoctium (“equinox”), from aequus (“equal”) + nox (“night”) (ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (“night”)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). The Latin word, ultimately adopted in Middle English and modern English, displaced Old English efnniht (modern English evennight). The rare alternative plural form equinoctes treats equinox as if it were a Latin word; the plural of Latin nox (“night”) is noctēs.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
7th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.7%
of traced words share this origin (3,077)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, EQUINOX · 1 relative in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
EQUINOX in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far. 28 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 164, 31 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 7 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 164, 31 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
EQUINOX starts with E and ends with X. Sorted, its letters read EINOQUX - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram. It uses Q and X - among the least common letters in written English.
Words that start EQUINO
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found EQUINOX?
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 164 - and most players walked straight past it.
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