The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
GOAL
Definition of GOAL
noun
A result that one is attempting to achieve.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English gol (“boundary, limit”), from Old English *gāl (“obstacle, barrier, marker”), from Proto-West Germanic *gailu, from Proto-Germanic *gailō (“crevice, gap”); compare the Old English's derivatives Old English gǣlan (“to hinder, delay”), and hyġegǣls (“hesitating, slow, sluggish”), hyġegǣlsa (“slow one, sluggish one”). Possibly cognate with Lithuanian gãlas (“end”), Latvian gals (“end”), Old Prussian gallan (“death”), Albanian ngalem (“to be limping, lame, paralyzed”), ngel (“to remain, linger, hesitate, get stuck”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
7th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
3.4%
of traced words share this origin (969)
branch · 22.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, GOAL · 2 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Russian.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
GOAL in OUTLIER
It has fitted 2 boards so far. 52 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 117, 14 September 2026. The most recent board was Day 131, 28 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 10 days.
First found by a player on Day 8, 29 May 2026.
Built from these letters
GOAL starts with G and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AGLO - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
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 GOAL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found GOAL?
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 117 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER