The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
INSTARS
Definition of INSTARS
noun
plural of instar
noun
Any one of the several stages of postembryonic development which an arthropod undergoes, between molts, before it reaches sexual maturity.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
INSTARS inherits its ancestry from its root, INSTAR.
Line of descent
- Latin
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
33%
of traced words share this origin (9,478)
branch · 33% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, INSTAR · 1 relative in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
INSTARS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 3 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 90, 18 August 2026. The most recent board was Day 140, 7 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First found by a player on Day 90, 18 August 2026.
Built from these letters
INSTARS starts with I and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read AINRSST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. S appears more than once.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start INSTAR
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found INSTARS?
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 90 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER