The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
PHILANDER
Definition of PHILANDER
noun
A lover.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
As a verb, first seen in the 1824 play Philandering: Or, The Rose Queen, by Samuel Beazley. From the given name Philander, used for love interest or suitor stock characters in several 18th century stories and poems, from Ancient Greek Φίλανδρος (Phílandros), name of the mythological son of the nymph Acacallis and the god Apollo. Semantically disconnected from the adjective φίλανδρος (phílandros, “loving one’s husband; excessively attracted to males, slutty, boy crazy”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Ancient Greek
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
12.6%
of traced words share this origin (3,605)
branch · 12.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, PHILANDER · 2 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.
PHILANDER in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 73 boards so far. 282 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 136, 3 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 7, 28 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
PHILANDER starts with P and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read ADEHILNPR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start PHILAN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found PHILANDER?
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