The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SPIKY
Definition of SPIKY
adjective
Of a plant: producing spikes (“ears (as of corn); inflorescences in which sessile flowers are arranged on unbranched elongated axes”).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From spike (“kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense “having the quality of”). Spike is derived from Middle English spik, spike (“ear of grain; clove of garlic; plant having spikes; plant of the genus Valeriana, especially Valeriana officinalis; plant of the genus Lavandula, lavender”), from Latin spīca (“ear, head, or spike of grain; plant spike”) (feminine) (also rarely spīcum (neuter) and spīcus (masculine)), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“long; sharp; thin”).
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.
SPIKY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 7 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 36, 25 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 83, 11 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 19 days.
First found by a player on Day 36, 25 June 2026.
Also on
Built from these letters
SPIKY starts with S and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read IKPSY - 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.
Also seen on Day 36
Could you have found SPIKY?
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 36 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER