The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ROTAN
Definition of ROTAN
noun
A long rattan cane used for corporal punishment.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Malay rotan (“cane”), doublet of rattan.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Malay
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
28th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
0.3%
of traced words share this origin (98)
branch · 0.5% of traced words
How it is built
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
ROTAN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 139, 6 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 7 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 139, 6 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
ROTAN starts with R and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read ANORT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start ROTAN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found ROTAN?
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 139 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER