The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FLANNEL
Definition of FLANNEL
noun
A soft cloth material originally woven from wool, today often combined with cotton or synthetic fibers.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English flaunneol, from Anglo-Norman flanelle (compare Norman flianné), diminutive of Old French flaine, floene (“coarse wool”), from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *wlānos, *wlanā (“wool”) (compare Welsh gwlân, Breton gloan), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂. More at wool.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,866)
How it is built
Same root, FLANNEL · 3 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Welsh.
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.
FLANNEL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 2 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 145, 12 October 2026. The most recent board was Day 154, 21 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 15 days.
First found by a player on Day 154, 21 October 2026.
Built from these letters
FLANNEL starts with F and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AEFLLNN - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. L and N appear more than once, including a double letter.
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 FLANNE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found FLANNEL?
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 145 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER