The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
NICKEL
Definition of NICKEL
noun
A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.
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.
NICKEL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 11 boards so far. 13 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 102, 30 August 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
NICKEL starts with N and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read CEIKLN - 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 NICKEL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found NICKEL?
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