The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
GNOMON
Definition of GNOMON
noun
An object such as a pillar or a rod that is used to tell time by the shadow it casts when the sun shines on it, especially the pointer on a sundial.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from French gnomon, or directly from its etymon Latin gnōmōn, or directly from its etymon Ancient Greek γνώμων (gnṓmōn, “discerner, interpreter; carpenter’s square; gnomon of a sundial; (geometry) gnomon”), from γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō, “to be aware of; to perceive; to know”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”); the word is thus related to know. The geometry sense (sense 4) is from the resemblance of the plane figure to a carpenter’s square. Similarly, a gnomon in mathematics (sense 5) is also shaped like a carpenter’s square when depicted pictorially if the figurate numbers are squares.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
8.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,622)
How it is built
Same root, GNOMON · 1 relative 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.
GNOMON in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 145, 12 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 145, 12 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
GNOMON starts with G and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read GMNNOO - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. N and O appear more than once.
Words that start GNOMON
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found GNOMON?
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