The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ROTE
Definition of ROTE
noun
Mechanical routine; a fixed, habitual, repetitive, or mechanical course of procedure.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English rote (“custom, habit, wont, condition, state”), further origin unknown. Found in the Middle English phrase bi rote (“by heart, according to form, expertly”), c. 1300. Some have proposed a relationship either with Old French rote/rute (“route”), or Latin rota (“wheel”) (see rotary), but the OED calls both suggestions groundless. Another explanation might be the metaphorical comparison between anything repetitive and playing the rote.
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.
ROTE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 32 boards so far. 61 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 10, 30 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 109, 6 September 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 10, 30 May 2026.
Built from these letters
ROTE starts with R and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EORT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
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 ROTE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 10
Could you have found ROTE?
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 10 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER