The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SKEIN
Definition of SKEIN
noun
A quantity of thread, yarn, etc., wound on a reel then removed and loosely knotted into an oblong shape; a skein of cotton is formed by eighty turns of thread around a reel with a fifty-four inch diameter.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
The noun is derived from Middle English skaine, skayne (“quantity of string, thread, etc., wound on a reel; the string, thread, etc., so wound”), from Old French escaigne (modern French écagne, écaigne (Picardy)); further etymology uncertain, probably from Proto-Celtic, from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to split off”). The verb is derived from noun.
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.
SKEIN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 37 boards so far. 191 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 19, 8 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 102, 30 August 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 19, 8 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SKEIN starts with S and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read EIKNS - 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 SKEIN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 19
Could you have found SKEIN?
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 19 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER