The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
MADELEINE
Definition of MADELEINE
noun
A French type of small gateau or sponge cake, often shaped like an elongated scallop shell.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Unadapted borrowing from French madeleine, from earlier gâteau à la Madeleine, after the given name Madeleine (“Magdalene”), of uncertain reference: attributed in some sources to a 19th-century pastry cook Madeleine Paulmier, whose existence is now considered dubious. In sense 2, used with reference to the cake's function in the extract below, taken from Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time.
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.
MADELEINE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 2 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 113, 10 September 2026. The most recent board was Day 120, 17 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 113, 10 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
MADELEINE starts with M and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ADEEEILMN - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. E appears more than once.
Words that start MADELE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found MADELEINE?
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 113 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER