The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ESTRAY
Definition of ESTRAY
noun
An animal that has escaped from its owner; a wandering animal whose owner is unknown. An animal cannot be an estray when on the range where it was raised, and permitted by its owner to run. A lost animal whose owner is known to the party at hand is not an estray.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English astrai, from Anglo-Norman estray, from the Old French verb estraier. Etymological doublet with stray.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
9th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
2.9%
of traced words share this origin (848)
branch · 15.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, ESTRAY · 2 relatives 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.
ESTRAY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 6 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 48, 7 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 107, 4 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 44 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 48, 7 July 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
ESTRAY starts with E and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read AERSTY - 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.
Words that start ESTRAY
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 48
Could you have found ESTRAY?
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 48 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER