The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
MAINTENANCE
Definition of MAINTENANCE
noun
Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir, from Latin manus tenēre (“to hold in the hand”). By surface analysis, maintain + -ance. Note that maintain has undergone a sound and spelling change, hence is spelt with -tain-, rather than the -ten- still found in maintenance.
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.
MAINTENANCE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 3, 24 May 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 119 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 3, 24 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
MAINTENANCE starts with M and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read AACEEIMNNNT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. A, N and E appear more than once.
Words that start MAINTEN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 3
Could you have found MAINTENANCE?
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 3 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER