SPALE

Where it comes from

From Middle English spale (“splinter”), perhaps partly from Old English *spalu (“flat bar, flake, chip”) or Old Norse spǫlr (“plank, rail, bar, short piece of wood”), both from Proto-Germanic *spaluz (“pole, rod, thin bar, lath”); and partly as an alteration of Old English speld (“ember, flake, torch, splinter, thin piece of wood used as a torch”), from Proto-Germanic *speldą (“that which is split, splinter, board”); both from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pala-, *(s)pel- (“to split in two, split in half”). Cognate with Middle High German spale ("rung of a ladder"; > dialectal German Spale (“a wooden split, wedge”)), dialectal Swedish spalu (“splinter”), dialectal Norwegian spel, spela, spila (“a splinter”), Icelandic spölur (“bit, short piece”). See also split.

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

SPALE in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 3 boards so far.

It first turned up on Day 60, 19 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 94, 22 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 8 days.

Built from these letters

SPALE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read AELPS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.

Same letters, different word

9 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.

Words that start SPALE

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

Also seen on Day 60