The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ROTAVIRUS
Definition of ROTAVIRUS
noun
Any of a group of wheel-shaped viruses, of the genus Rotavirus, that causes gastroenteritis and diarrhea in children and animals.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Latin rota (“wheel”) + virus. The name was first proposed in July 1974 in an article in The Lancet.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Latin
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
30.7%
of traced words share this origin (23,951)
branch · 30.7% 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.
ROTAVIRUS 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 17 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
ROTAVIRUS starts with R and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read AIORRSTUV - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. R appears more than once.
Words that start ROTAVI
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found ROTAVIRUS?
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