The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
MISTAKE
Definition of MISTAKE
verb
To understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English mistaken, from Old Norse mistaka (“to take in error, to miscarry”); equivalent to mis- + take. Cognate with Icelandic mistaka (“to mistake”), Swedish missta (“to mistake”) (before apocope misstaga). The noun, which replaced earlier mistaking, is derived from the verb. Compare Swedish misstag (“mistake”, noun), Faroese mistak (“mitake”, noun), Icelandic mistak (“mistake”, noun).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Old Norse
- Middle English
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
16th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.7%
of traced words share this origin (211)
branch · 22.3% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, MISTAKE · 2 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Icelandic, Swedish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
MISTAKE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 19 boards so far. 28 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 148, 15 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 7, 28 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
MISTAKE starts with M and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read AEIKMST - 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 MISTAK
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found MISTAKE?
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 7 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER