The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
LAVA
Definition of LAVA
noun
The molten rock ejected by a volcano from a vent such as a crater or fissure; magma that has breached the surface of the earth.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Italian, from Neapolitan and Sicilian lava (“lava; downpour overflowing the streets”), likely from Latin lābēs (“a fall; a collapse; subsidence”); compare lābīna (“landslide”). A supposed relation with lavare (“to wash”) is now widely discredited, nor is there probably any relation with Arabic لابة (lāba, “black volcanic rock”). (Can this etymology be sourced?) Alternatively, the Romance words are connected with Provençal lavo, lauvo (“flat stone”), from a Vulgar Latin source borrowed from a Celtic language such as Gaulish *lawā, but ultimately of obscure origin; see Proto-Celtic *līwos for details.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
LAVA in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 15 boards so far. 27 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 23, 12 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 112, 9 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 9 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 23, 12 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
LAVA starts with L and ends with A. Sorted, its letters read AALV - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. A appears more than once.
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 LAVA
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 23
Could you have found LAVA?
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 23 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER