The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SPOON
Definition of SPOON
noun
An implement for eating or serving; a scooped utensil whose long handle is straight, in contrast to a ladle.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English spoon, spoune, spone, spon (“spoon, chip of wood”), from Old English spōn (“sliver, chip of wood, shaving”), from Proto-West Germanic *spānu, from Proto-Germanic *spēnuz (“chip, flake, shaving”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peH- (“chip, shaving, log, length of wood”). Cognate with Scots spun, spon (“spoon, shingle”), West Frisian spoen (“chip”), Dutch spaan (“chip, flinders”), German Span (“chip, flake, shaving”), Swedish spån (“chip, flake”), Norwegian Nynorsk spon (“chip, spoon”), Faroese spónur (“wood chip; spoon”), Ancient Greek σφήν (sphḗn, “wedge”)(though the connection to the Greek is likely impossible by modern reconstructions of PIE). Eclipsed non-native Middle English cuculer, coclear (“spoon”), from Old English cuculer, cuceler, cucler, borrowed from Latin cochlear (“spoon”). The "metaphoric unit of personal energy" sense was coined by writer and disability advocate Christine Miserandino in 2003 (see spoon theory).
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.
SPOON in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 10 boards so far. 15 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 95, 23 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 7 days.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
SPOON starts with S and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read NOOPS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. O appears more than once, including a double letter.
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 SPOON
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found SPOON?
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