The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
LACTOSE
Definition of LACTOSE
noun
The disaccharide sugar of milk and dairy products, C12H22O11, a product of glucose and galactose used as a food and in medicinal compounds.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from French lactose, from Latin lac (“milk”) + -ose (derivation of glucose). Coined by French chemist Marcelin Berthelot.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
30.6%
of traced words share this origin (24,817)
branch · 30.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, LACTOSE · 2 relatives 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.
LACTOSE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 65 boards so far. 114 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 163, 30 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 17, 6 June 2026.
Built from these letters
LACTOSE starts with L and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ACELOST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
4 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start LACTOS
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found LACTOSE?
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.
Play today's OUTLIER