The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SILKEN
Definition of SILKEN
adjective
Made of silk.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English silken, selken, seolkene, from Old English seolcen, from seolc (“silk”) + -en, from an unattested early Proto-West Germanic borrowing from Latin sēricum, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”). Equivalent to silk + -en (“made of”). Cognate with Scots selkin, silkin (“silken”), Icelandic silki (“silken”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
12.4%
of traced words share this origin (10,094)
branch · 12.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SILKEN · 1 relative in the game
Its etymology also names Icelandic, Scots.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SILKEN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 30 boards so far. 51 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 40, 29 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 156, 23 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 40, 29 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SILKEN starts with S and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read EIKLNS - 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 SILKEN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 40
Could you have found SILKEN?
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 40 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER