The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SHELLACKING
Definition of SHELLACKING
noun
The act or process of coating with shellac.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From shellac + -ing. Shellac is used in floor polish; compare polishing, as in "the other boxer in the match polished the floor with me; I took quite a polishing".
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Polish
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
36th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.2%
of traced words share this origin (138)
branch · 0.7% of traced words
How it is built
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SHELLACKING in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far. 12 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 173, 9 November 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 4 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 173, 9 November 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SHELLACKING starts with S and ends with G. Sorted, its letters read ACEGHIKLLNS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. L appears more than once, including a double letter.
Words that start SHELLAC
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found SHELLACKING?
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 173 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER