The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SHELDUCK
Definition of SHELDUCK
noun
Any of various waterfowl of the genus Tadorna, native to Eurasia, Africa and Australasia.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From obsolete/dialectal sheld (“variegated”) + duck. Compare typologically Russian пега́нка (pegánka) (< пе́гий (pégij)).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
How it is built
Its etymology also names Russian.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SHELDUCK in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 17 boards so far. 21 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 89, 17 August 2026. The most recent board was Day 164, 31 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 89, 17 August 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SHELDUCK starts with S and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read CDEHKLSU - 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 SHELDU
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found SHELDUCK?
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 89 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER