The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SHOOL
Definition of SHOOL
noun
A shovel.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English schovele (> English dialectal shoul, shool), from Old English sċofl (“shovel”), from Proto-Germanic *skuflō, *skūflō (“shovel”), equivalent to shove + -el (instrumental/agent suffix). Cognate with Scots shuffle, shule, shuil (“shovel”), Saterland Frisian Sköifel (“shovel”), West Frisian skoffel, schoffel (“hoe, spade, shovel”), Dutch schoffel (“spade, hoe”), Low German Schüfel, Schuffel (“shovel”), German Schaufel (“shovel”), Danish skovl (“shovel”), Swedish skyffel, skovel (“shovel”), Icelandic skófla (“shovel”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
6th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
4.7%
of traced words share this origin (3,861)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SHOOL · 3 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Scots, Swedish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SHOOL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 15 boards so far. 34 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 25, 14 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 158, 25 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First found by a player on Day 25, 14 June 2026.
Built from these letters
SHOOL starts with S and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read HLOOS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. O appears more than once, including a double letter.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start SHOOL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 25
Could you have found SHOOL?
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 25 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER