The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SPINDLE
Definition of SPINDLE
noun
A rod used for spinning and then winding fibres (especially wool), usually consisting of a shaft and a circular whorl positioned at either the upper or lower end of the shaft when suspended vertically from the forming thread.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English spyndel, spindle, spyndylle, from Old English spindle, spindel, alteration of earlier spinel, spinil, spinl (“spindle”), from Proto-West Germanic *spinnilu (“spindle”), equivalent to spin + -le. Cognate with Scots spindil, spinnell (“spindle”), Dutch spindel ("spindle"; < Middle Dutch spille, spinle), German Spindel (“spindle”), Danish spindel (“spindle”), Swedish spindel (“spindle”). The dragonfly sense (noun sense 14) is a calque of Swedish slända (dragonfly/spindle); this word was introduced by New Sweden settlers.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
8th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.1%
of traced words share this origin (923)
branch · 22.3% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SPINDLE · 1 relative in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Middle Dutch, Scots, Swedish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SPINDLE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 76 boards so far. 159 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 152, 19 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 7, 28 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SPINDLE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read DEILNPS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start SPINDL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found SPINDLE?
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