The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SPADE
Definition of SPADE
noun
A garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging. Not to be confused with a shovel which is used for moving earth or other materials.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English spade, from Old English spada, spade, spadu (“spade”), from Proto-Germanic *spadô. Doublet of spatha, spathe, and épée.
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 (3,888)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SPADE · 9 relatives in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SPADE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 22 boards so far. 46 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 165, 1 November 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
SPADE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ADEPS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start SPADE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found SPADE?
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 7 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER