The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FLINCH
Definition of FLINCH
noun
A reflexive jerking away.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle French flenchir (“to bend”), from Old French flenchir, flanchir, from Frankish *hlankijan, from Proto-Germanic *hlankijaną (“to bend, twist, flex”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleng- (“to bend, turn, wind”). Cognate with Old High German hlenken, whence Middle High German lenken (“to bend”), Modern German lenken (“to cause to veer or turn aside, steer”). Attested in English since the 16th century.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.3%
of traced words share this origin (11,293)
How it is built
Same root, FLINCH · 5 relatives in the game
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.
FLINCH in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 28 boards so far. 56 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 25, 14 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 159, 26 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 25, 14 June 2026.
Built from these letters
FLINCH starts with F and ends with H. Sorted, its letters read CFHILN - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start FLINCH
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found FLINCH?
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 25 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER