The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FLAG
Definition of FLAG
noun
A piece of cloth, often decorated with an emblem, used as a visual signal or symbol.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English flag, flagge (“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and Old English flagg, flacg (“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Or, perhaps ultimately imitative, or otherwise drawn from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”), referring to the shape. Germanic cognates include Saterland Frisian Flaage (“flag”), West Frisian flagge (“flag”), Dutch vlag (“flag”), German Flagge (“flag”), Swedish flagga (“flag”), Danish flag (“flag, ship's flag”). Compare also Middle English flacken (“to flutter, palpitate”), Swedish dialectal flage (“to flutter in the wind”), Old Norse flögra (“to flap about”). Akin to Old High German flogarōn (“to flutter”), Old High German flogezen (“to flutter, flicker”), Middle English flakeren (“to move quickly to and fro”), Old English flacor (“fluttering, flying”). More at flack, flacker.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
7 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
36th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.2%
of traced words share this origin (134)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, FLAG · 11 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Old Norse.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
FLAG in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 20 boards so far. 29 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 23, 12 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 163, 30 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First found by a player on Day 24, 13 June 2026.
Built from these letters
FLAG starts with F and ends with G. Sorted, its letters read AFGL - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start FLAG
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 23
Could you have found FLAG?
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 23 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER