The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
PASTEL
Definition of PASTEL
noun
Any of several subdued tints of colors, usually associated with pink, peach, yellow, green, blue, and lavender.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from French pastel, from Italian pastello (“pastel”), from Medieval Latin pastellum (“dough, paste”), from Latin pasta (“dough, paste”), ultimately from Ancient Greek πάστη (pástē, “dough, paste”). Doublet of pastegh, pastiglia, pastila, pastilla, and pastille.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
12.6%
of traced words share this origin (3,702)
branch · 12.6% of traced words
How it is built
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
PASTEL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 26 boards so far. 39 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 17, 6 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 142, 9 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First found by a player on Day 17, 6 June 2026.
Built from these letters
PASTEL starts with P and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AELPST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
10 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start PASTEL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 17
Could you have found PASTEL?
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 17 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER