The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.

SILK

/sɪlk/4 letters

Definition of SILK

noun

A fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider).

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Where it comes from

From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkai̇̃), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 / 丝 (sī, “silk”)). Displaced Old English sīde (“silk”). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge.

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

Rarity score
Withheld
Revealed only in play
Tier
Withheld
Find it yourself

OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.

SILK in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 3 boards so far.

Day 1Day 120
Its 3 boards, across 120 finished boards · taller bars are busier boards
3
Boards found on
46
First board
95
Latest board
37
Longest gap, days

It first turned up on Day 46, 5 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 95, 23 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 25 days.

First found by a player on Day 46, 5 July 2026.

Built from these letters

SILK
4
Letters
1
Vowels
3
Consonants
4
Different letters
2
Longest consonant run
1
Longest vowel run

SILK starts with S and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read IKLS - 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.

Words that start SILK

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

SILKSSILKYSILKEDSILKENSILKIESILKENSSILKIERSILKIESSILKILYSILKINGSILKENEDSILKIEST

Could you have found SILK?

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 46 - and most players walked straight past it.

Play today's OUTLIER

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The OUTLIER card for SILKDownload image