The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
MANCALA
Definition of MANCALA
noun
Any of various board games, common throughout Africa and Asia, in which a move consists of emptying a pit and then its contents are sown one by one into ensuing pits.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Arabic مَنْقَلَة (manqala).
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.
MANCALA in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 127, 24 September 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
Built from these letters
MANCALA starts with M and ends with A. Sorted, its letters read AAACLMN - 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.
Could you have found MANCALA?
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 127 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER