The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
RETRENCH
Definition of RETRENCH
verb
To cut down or reduce. To terminate the employment of a worker to reduce the size of a workforce; to make redundant.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Old French retranchier (“to get rid of, remove”) (modern French retrancher (“to cut out, take away; to cut off; to cut down”)), from re- (“again”) + tranchier, trenchier (“to cut”) (modern French trancher (“to slice”)); further etymology uncertain, but possibly either from Vulgar Latin *trinicāre (“cut in three parts”) (from the root trini from trēs (“three”), based on the model of duplicāre (“to double by dividing, split in two, tear”)), or from an alteration of Latin truncāre (“to maim by cutting off pieces; to truncate”), also possibly influenced by Gaulish *trincare (“to cut (the head)”). Compare English trench.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Latin
- Old French
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
30.7%
of traced words share this origin (25,695)
branch · 30.7% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, RETRENCH · 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.
RETRENCH in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 154, 21 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 17 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 154, 21 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
RETRENCH starts with R and ends with H. Sorted, its letters read CEEHNRRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. R and E appear more than once.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start RETREN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found RETRENCH?
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 154 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER