The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
POKE
Definition of POKE
verb
To prod or jab with an object such as a finger or a stick.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English poken, perhaps from Middle Dutch poken or Middle Low German poken, both from Proto-West Germanic *pukōn or similar, which is itself of uncertain origin, but may be from an imitative Proto-Germanic root *puk-. Doublet of poach. Compare Nordic cognates Swedish påka (“to poke, muck with a stick”), påk (“club, limb; dagger”), pykel (“small poker”), dialectal Norwegian pauka (“to walk stomping, etc”), pauk (“weak, slow person”). Central European noun-cognates refer to “dagger, bad knife, poker (for a fireplace)”, with analog verbs. To a Proto-Germanic *pauk-, *puk-, meanig, “to stick, muck with a stick”.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
6th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
4.7%
of traced words share this origin (3,691)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, POKE · 10 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Norwegian, Swedish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
POKE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 18 boards so far. 32 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 8, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 156, 23 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 8, 29 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
POKE starts with P and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EKOP - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start POKE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 8
Could you have found POKE?
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