The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
PHONICS
Definition of PHONICS
noun
The study of how the sounds of words are represented by spelling.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From phon- + -ics.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
PHONICS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 46 boards so far. 183 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 97, 25 August 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
PHONICS starts with P and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read CHINOPS - 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.
Could you have found PHONICS?
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