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NOCTULE
Definition of NOCTULE
noun
A bat, of the genus Nyctalus, that lives in tree hollows.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from French noctule, a latinised scientific borrowing of the Italian nottola (refers to various birds or bats), inherited from Late Latin noctula, diminutive of Classical Latin noctua (“night-owl”), ultimately from Latin nox (“night”), from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts. Per the OED, first attested in English in 1771.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,843)
How it is built
Same root, NOCTULE · 1 relative in the game
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
NOCTULE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 7 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 72, 31 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 163, 30 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 115, 12 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Also on
Built from these letters
NOCTULE starts with N and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read CELNOTU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Could you have found NOCTULE?
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 72 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER