The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
EXPLAINS
Definition of EXPLAINS
verb
third-person singular simple present indicative of explain
verb
To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
EXPLAINS inherits its ancestry from its root, EXPLAIN.
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
33.1%
of traced words share this origin (10,004)
branch · 33.1% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, EXPLAIN · 3 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Old English.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
EXPLAINS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 12 boards so far. 18 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 32, 21 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 144, 11 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 10 days.
First found by a player on Day 32, 21 June 2026.
Built from these letters
EXPLAINS starts with E and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read AEILNPSX - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram. It uses X - among the least common letters in written English.
Words that start EXPLAI
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found EXPLAINS?
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 32 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER