The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
MASK
Definition of MASK
noun
A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Middle French masque (“a covering to hide or protect the face”), from Italian maschera (“mask, disguise”), from (a byform of, see it for more) Medieval Latin masca, mascha, a borrowing of Proto-West Germanic *maskā, from which English mesh and mask (“mesh”) (below at Etymology 2) are inherited. Doublet of mascara, masque, and mesh. Replaced Old English grīma (“mask”), whence grime, and displaced non-native Middle English viser (“visor, mask”) borrowed from Old French viser, visier.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
8th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.3%
of traced words share this origin (2,743)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, MASK · 5 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Middle English, Old English, Old French.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
MASK in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 12 boards so far. 15 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 32, 21 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 156, 23 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 10 days.
First found by a player on Day 32, 21 June 2026.
Built from these letters
MASK starts with M and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read AKMS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
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 MASK
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 32
Could you have found MASK?
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 32 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER