The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
GRATICULE
Definition of GRATICULE
noun
A grid of horizontal and vertical lines; specifically, one used as a guide to proportionately enlarge or reduce a drawing. The network of lines of latitude and longitude that make up a coordinate system such as the one used for charts and maps of the Earth. Synonym of reticle (“a transparent plate marked with a crosshair, grid, or scale which is used in an optical instrument, etc., to aid in alignment, counting, or measurement of objects being observed; also, the crosshair, grid, or scale on such a plate”).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from French graticule, from Medieval Latin grātīcula, from Latin crāticula (“grating, grill”), from crātis (“hurdle; wickerwork”) (probably from Proto-Indo-European *kréh₂-tis (“fenced handiwork”)) + -cula (feminine form of -culus, a variant of -ulus (“diminutive suffix”)).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
8.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,656)
How it is built
Same root, GRATICULE · 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.
GRATICULE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 16 boards so far. 17 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 72, 31 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 149, 16 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 4 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 72, 31 July 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
GRATICULE starts with G and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ACEGILRTU - 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.
Could you have found GRATICULE?
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 72 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER