The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SPALE
Definition of SPALE
noun
A chip or splinter of wood.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
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).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
8.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,636)
How it is built
Its etymology also names Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish.
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SPALE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 8 boards so far. 11 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 60, 19 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 149, 16 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 60, 19 July 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
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
Could you have found SPALE?
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 60 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER