The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
QUIRK
Definition of QUIRK
noun
An idiosyncrasy; a slight glitch, a mannerism; something unusual about the manner or style of something or someone.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
First attested in the 1540s. Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Middle English *querk, from Old Norse kverk (“a bend or angle, especially below a cross-beam or below the chin, the bight of an axe", also "throat, gullet”), from Proto-Germanic *kwerkō (“throat, gullet”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour; maw”). Cognate with Scots querk (“throat", also "any hollow in the body, such as an armpit, groin, instep, etc.”), Icelandic kverk (“interior angle”). Also partially from dialectal quirk, querk (“a whim, fancy, fuss, huff, complaint", also "to peevishly grumble, grunt, sigh, croak, die”), from Middle English querken, *quirken (“to choke”), from Old Norse kvirkja (“to choke, strangle”), from the same origin above. Related to dialectal querken, quirken (“to choke”). Likely not related to queer.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
8.8%
of traced words share this origin (2,662)
How it is built
Same root, QUIRK · 3 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Icelandic, Scots.
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
QUIRK in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 11 boards so far. 55 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 10, 30 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 126, 23 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 28 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 10, 30 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
QUIRK starts with Q and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read IKQRU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram. It uses Q - among the least common letters in written English.
Words that start QUIRK
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 10
Could you have found QUIRK?
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 10 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER