The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
REARGUARD
Definition of REARGUARD
noun
The rearmost part of a force, especially a detachment of troops that protect the rear of a retreating force.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English rier garde, from Anglo-Norman reregard, reregarde, rereguarde and Middle French rieregarde, from Old French rereguarde (attested in The Song of Roland, c. 1150), from rere (“after; behind”) + guarde (“guard”). By surface analysis, rear + guard. Piecewise doublet of retrogarde.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
9th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
2.9%
of traced words share this origin (837)
branch · 15.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, REARGUARD · 1 relative in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
REARGUARD in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 141, 8 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 141, 8 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
REARGUARD starts with R and ends with D. Sorted, its letters read AADEGRRRU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. R and A appear more than once.
Words that start REARGU
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found REARGUARD?
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 141 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER