The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
NUTSHELL
Definition of NUTSHELL
noun
The shell that surrounds the kernel of a nut.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English notschelle, from Old English hnutsċiell, from Proto-West Germanic *hnutskallju, equivalent to nut + shell. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Nuteskele, Nuteskil (“nutshell”), Dutch notenschaal (“nutshell”), German Nussschale (“nutshell”). The verb, as well as the legal book sense, is in reference to the phrase in a nutshell (“summarized”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
8th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.1%
of traced words share this origin (872)
branch · 22.7% of traced words
How it is built
Its etymology also names Dutch.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
NUTSHELL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 131, 28 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 8 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 131, 28 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
NUTSHELL starts with N and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read EHLLNSTU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. L appears more than once, including a double letter.
Words that start NUTSHE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found NUTSHELL?
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 131 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER