The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SHIELD
Definition of SHIELD
noun
Anything that protects or defends; defense; shelter; protection. A broad piece of defensive armor, held in hand, formerly in general use in war, for the protection of the body. One who protects or defends. A featherless, flat, fleshy protuberance on the head; a frontal shield. A flattish patch of iridescent feathers. A heavily hardened, protective plate on an insect's exoskeleton that covers part of its body. In lichens, a hardened cup or disk surrounded by a rim and containing the fructification, or asci. A framework used to protect workmen in making an adit under ground, and capable of being pushed along as excavation progresses. A field of energy that protects or defends.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English scheld, shelde, from Old English scield (“shield”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeldu, from Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“cut, split”). Cognate with West Frisian skyld (“shield”), Bavarian Schuid (“shield”), Dutch schild (“shield”), German and Low German Schild (“shield”), Luxembourgish Schëld (“shield”), Yiddish שילד (shild, “shield”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk skjold (“shield”), Elfdalian stjöld (“shield”), Faroese skjøldur (“shield”), Gutnish skiåld (“shield”), Icelandic skjöldur (“shield”), Swedish sköld (“shield”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌳𐌿𐍃 (skildus, “shield”). Compare Breton skoed (“shield”), Irish sciath (“shield”), Scottish Gaelic sgiath (“shield”), Latin scūtum (“shield”), Latgalian škīda (“shield”), Lithuanian skydas (“shield”), Belarusian шчыт (ščyt, “shield”), Bulgarian, Russian, and Ukrainian щит (ščyt, “shield”), Czech and Slovak štít (“shield”), Macedonian штит (štit, “shield”), Polish szczyt (“shield”), Serbo-Croatian штит, štit, ščit (“shield”), Slovene ščit (“shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect, split”).
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.
SHIELD in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 16 boards so far. 23 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 6, 27 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 92, 20 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First found by a player on Day 6, 27 May 2026.
Built from these letters
SHIELD starts with S and ends with D. Sorted, its letters read DEHILS - 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 SHIELD
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 6
Could you have found SHIELD?
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