The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
RETINA
Definition of RETINA
noun
The thin layer of cells at the back of the eyeball that contains rods and cones sensitive to light, which trigger nerve impulses that pass via the optic nerve to the brain, where a visual image is formed.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English rethina, borrowing from Medieval Latin rētīna (“retina”, feminine noun), ellipsis of tunica rētīna (“net-like tunic”), used to describe the blood vessel system at the back of the eye. The phrase is attested in the 12th century in Guillelmus the abbot and Gerard of Cremona—the latter may have created this phrase as a translation for Arabic طَبَقَة شَبَكِيَّة (ṭabaqa šabakiyya) "net-like layer", which translates Ancient Greek ἀμφιβληστροειδής χῐτών (amphiblēstroeidḗs khĭtṓn, “retina”), which is attested in the ancient medical writer Galen.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
RETINA in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 18 boards so far. 12 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 17, 6 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 93, 21 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 17, 6 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
RETINA starts with R and ends with A. Sorted, its letters read AEINRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start RETINA
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 17
Could you have found RETINA?
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 17 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER