The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SHACKLE
Definition of SHACKLE
noun
A restraint fitted over a human or animal appendage, such as an ankle, finger, or wrist, normally used in a pair joined by a chain.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English shakel, schakkyl, schakle (“a fetter, shackle; coupling used to connect a plough or wagon to a draft chain”), from Old English sċacul, sċeacel, sċeacul (“fetter, shackle”), from Proto-West Germanic *skakul, from Proto-Germanic *skakulaz (“shackle”), possibly from *skakaną (“to shake; to swing; to escape”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeg-, *skek- (“to shake; to stir”). However, this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary because *skeg-, *skek- lack the meaning of attaching or fastening. Sense 3 (“length of cable or chain equal to 12½ or 15 fathoms”) derives from the original distance between two shackles (sense 1.1.3) connecting lengths of cable or chain together.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
8.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,647)
How it is built
Same root, SHACKLE · 2 relatives in the game
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SHACKLE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 26 boards so far. 35 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 8, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 149, 16 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First found by a player on Day 8, 29 May 2026.
Built from these letters
SHACKLE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ACEHKLS - 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 SHACKL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 8
Could you have found SHACKLE?
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 8 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER