The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SHAD
Definition of SHAD
noun
Any one of several species of food fishes that make up the genus Alosa in the family Clupeidae, to which the herrings also belong; river herring.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English shadde, from Old English sċeadd, of uncertain origin. Compare Low German Schade (“shad, herring”), Scottish Gaelic sgadan (“herring”), Welsh ysgadan. Possibly from Scandinavian/North Germanic (compare dialectal Norwegian skadd (“small whitefish”), Old Norse skata (“kind of fish”)), but the order of borrowing is unclear and the ultimate origin of these words is obscure.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Old English
- Middle English
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
7th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.7%
of traced words share this origin (2,853)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SHAD · 2 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names German, Norwegian, Old Norse, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SHAD in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 49 boards so far. 133 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 15, 4 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 155, 22 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 15, 4 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SHAD starts with S and ends with D. Sorted, its letters read ADHS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start SHAD
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 15
Could you have found SHAD?
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 15 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER