The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SHADE
Definition of SHADE
noun
Darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English schade, from Old English sċeadu, from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skaduz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱh₃tús, from *(s)ḱeh₃-. Doublet of shadow. Cognate with Ancient Greek σκότος (skótos) (whence English scoto-) and σκιά (skiá) (whence English scia-, and uncertainly via σκίουρος (skíouros) English squirrel).
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.
SHADE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 10 boards so far. 15 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 6, 27 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 100, 28 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 42, 1 July 2026.
Built from these letters
SHADE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ADEHS - 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 SHADE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 6
Could you have found SHADE?
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 6 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER