The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
PENCILS
Definition of PENCILS
noun
plural of pencil
noun
A writing utensil with a graphite (commonly referred to as lead) shaft, usually blended with clay, clad in wood, and sharpened to a taper.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
PENCILS inherits its ancestry from its root, PENCIL.
Line of descent
- Latin
- Old French
- Anglo-Norman
- English
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
33.1%
of traced words share this origin (10,004)
branch · 33.1% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, PENCIL · 3 relatives in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
PENCILS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 15 boards so far. 20 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 30, 19 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 149, 16 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 30, 19 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
PENCILS starts with P and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read CEILNPS - 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 PENCIL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 30
Could you have found PENCILS?
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 30 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER