The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SCYTALE
Definition of SCYTALE
noun
A cylinder with a strip of parchment wound around it on which a message is written, used for cryptography by the ancient Spartans.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Latin scytale (“cylinder used for encoding and decoding”), from Ancient Greek σκυτάλη (skutálē, “club, baton, cylinder used for encoding and decoding”).
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.
SCYTALE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 7 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 42, 1 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 102, 30 August 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 42, 1 July 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Also on
Built from these letters
SCYTALE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ACELSTY - 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 SCYTAL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 42
Could you have found SCYTALE?
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 42 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER