The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SHALE
Definition of SHALE
noun
A shell, scale or husk; a cod or pod.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English schale (“shell, husk; scale”), from Old English sċealu (“shell, husk, pod”), from Proto-West Germanic *skalu, from Proto-Germanic *skalō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”), from *(s)kel- (“to split, cleave”). See also West Frisian skaal (“dish”), Dutch schaal (“shell”), schalie (“shale”), German Schale (“husk, pod”); also Lithuanian skalà (“splinter”), Old Church Slavonic скала (skala, “rock, stone”), Polish skała (“rock”), Albanian halë (“fish bone, splinter”), Sanskrit कल (kalá, “small part”); also Hittite [script needed] (iškalla, “to tear apart, slit open”), Lithuanian skélti (“to split”), Ancient Greek σκάλλω (skállō, “to hoe, harrow”). Doublet of scale. See also shell.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.3%
of traced words share this origin (11,343)
How it is built
Same root, SHALE · 5 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Ancient Greek, Dutch, Polish, Sanskrit.
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.
SHALE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 59 boards so far. 136 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 23, 12 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 159, 26 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 23, 12 June 2026.
Built from these letters
SHALE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read AEHLS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
6 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start SHALE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 23
Could you have found SHALE?
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 23 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER