The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
MELANCHOLY
Definition of MELANCHOLY
noun
Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English malencolie, from Old French melancolie, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολία (melankholía, “atrabiliousness”) (from μέλας (mélas), μελαν- (melan-, “black, dark, murky”) + χολή (kholḗ, “bile”)), referring to the humour which ancient Hippocratic and later Galenic medicine associated with sadness and despondency. Compare the Latin ātra bīlis (“black bile”). The adjectival use is a Middle English innovation, perhaps influenced by the suffixes -y, -ly. Doublet of melancholia.
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.
MELANCHOLY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 2 boards so far. 14 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 110, 7 September 2026. The most recent board was Day 117, 14 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 110, 7 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
MELANCHOLY starts with M and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read ACEHLLMNOY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. L appears more than once.
Words that start MELANC
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found MELANCHOLY?
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 110 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER