The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
KLUDGE
Definition of KLUDGE
noun
An improvised device, typically crudely constructed to test the validity of a principle before implementing a finished design.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Other senses
KLUDGE carries 4 further meanings.
noun
A system, especially a computer system, that is constituted of poorly matched elements or of elements originally intended for other applications.
noun
A clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem.
noun
an improvised device, usually crudely constructed. Typically used to test the validity of a principle before doing a finished design.
noun
any construction or practice, typically inelegant, designed to solve a problem temporarily or expediently.
Where it comes from
Perhaps from British military slang, possibly based on Scots word kludge or kludgie (“common toilet”), or perhaps from German klug (“clever”). Alternatively, possibly related to Polish klucz (“key, clue, main point”) and Russian ключ (ključ, “key, clue”). Alternatively, perhaps from (a form related to) Germanic words such as Dutch Low Saxon klütje (“(little) dumpling, clod”), Dutch kluit(je) or Jutland Danish klyt (“piece of bad workmanship, klud(g)e”); compare and standard Danish kludder (“mess, disorder”). (Compare klutz.) There is evidence that kluge (which see) was once a separate word with similar meaning but separate derivation, but the spelling kludge was widely popularized in the US by an article in Datamation "How to Design a Kludge" (1962), and since then the two words have often been used as alternative spellings of each other. According to the OED, an "invented word" influenced by bodge and fudge.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
6 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
37th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.2%
of traced words share this origin (52)
branch · 22.3% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, KLUDGE · 2 relatives in the game
KLUDGE in a sentence
“A kludge is a marginal adaptation that compensates for, but does not eliminate fundamental design inefficiencies.”
Kludge: The Science? « PurpleSlog – Awesomeness & Modesty Meets Sexy, 2008
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
KLUDGE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 39 boards so far. 96 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 151, 18 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
KLUDGE starts with K and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read DEGKLU - 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 KLUDGE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found KLUDGE?
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 7 - and most players walked straight past it.
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