The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SHAWM
Definition of SHAWM
noun
A mediaeval double-reed wind instrument with a conical wooden body.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Other senses
SHAWM carries 4 further meanings.
noun
Any of various early double-reed wind instruments, forerunners of the modern oboe.
noun
A musical instrument of the oboe class, having a double reed inclosed in a globular mouthpiece.
noun
A wind instrument of music, formerly in use, supposed to have resembled either the clarinet or the hautboy in form.
noun
a mediaeval double reed wind instrument with conical wooden body
Where it comes from
From Middle English shalmuse, from Old French chalemel (modern French chalumeau), from Late Latin calamellus, from Latin calamus (“reed”), from Ancient Greek κάλαμος (kálamos). Doublet of caramel, chalumeau, and qalam, as well as related to calame, calamus, culm, and haulm.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
12.6%
of traced words share this origin (3,617)
branch · 12.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SHAWM · 1 relative in the game
SHAWM in a sentence
“"shawm" was a musical instrument resembling the clarinet.”
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SHAWM in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 50 boards so far. 76 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 37, 26 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 144, 11 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 37, 26 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SHAWM starts with S and ends with M. Sorted, its letters read AHMSW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Also seen on Day 37
Could you have found SHAWM?
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 37 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER