The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
RAINBOW
Definition of RAINBOW
noun
A multicoloured arch in the sky, produced by prismatic refraction of light within droplets of rain in the air.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English reynbowe, raynbowe, from Old English reġnboga (“rainbow”), from Proto-West Germanic *regnabogō, from Proto-Germanic *regnabugô (“rainbow”), equivalent to rain + bow (“arch”). Cognate with West Frisian reinbôge (“rainbow”), Dutch regenboog (“rainbow”), German Regenbogen (“rainbow”), Danish regnbue (“rainbow”), Swedish regnbåge (“rainbow”), Icelandic regnbogi (“rainbow”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
6th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
4.8%
of traced words share this origin (4,101)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, RAINBOW · 4 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, 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.
RAINBOW in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 33 boards so far. 66 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 12, 1 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 177, 13 November 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 12, 1 June 2026.
Built from these letters
RAINBOW starts with R and ends with W. Sorted, its letters read ABINORW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start RAINBO
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 12
Could you have found RAINBOW?
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 12 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER