The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
RUSE
Definition of RUSE
noun
A turning or doubling back, especially of animals to get out of the way of hunting dogs.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English rūse (“evasive movements of a pursued animal; circuitous course taken by a hunter to pursue a game animal”), from Old French rëuse, ruse (“evasive movements of a pursued animal; trickery”) (modern French ruse (“trick, ruse; cunning, guile”)), from ruser (“to use cunning, to be crafty, beguile”), possibly from Latin rursus (“backward; on the contrary; again, in return”) or Latin recūsāre, from recūsō (“to decline, refuse; to object to, protest, reject”). Doublet of recuse and rouse in the latter case. The verb is derived from the noun. Compare Middle French ruser (“to use cunning, to be crafty, beguile”); see further above.
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.
RUSE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 24 boards so far. 43 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 24, 13 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 100, 28 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First found by a player on Day 24, 13 June 2026.
Built from these letters
RUSE starts with R and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ERSU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
5 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start RUSE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 24
Could you have found RUSE?
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 24 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER