The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
PIKES
Definition of PIKES
noun
plural of pike
noun
A very long spear used two-handed by infantry soldiers for thrusting (not throwing), both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a countermeasure against cavalry assaults.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
PIKES inherits its ancestry from its root, PIKE.
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
6th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
4.7%
of traced words share this origin (3,672)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, PIKE · 10 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Irish, Middle Dutch, Norwegian.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
PIKES in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 25 boards so far. 46 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 8, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 155, 22 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 8, 29 May 2026.
Built from these letters
PIKES starts with P and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read EIKPS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start PIKES
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 8
Could you have found PIKES?
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 8 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER