The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SPUTNIK
Definition of SPUTNIK
noun
Any of a series of Soviet robotic space satellites, especially the first one in 1957.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Russian спу́тник (spútnik, “satellite”, literally “fellow traveller”), from с- (s-, “with, together”) + пу́тник (pútnik, “traveller”), from путь (putʹ, “way, journey”) + agent suffix -ник (-nik).
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.
SPUTNIK in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 23 boards so far. 54 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 19, 8 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 109, 6 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First found by a player on Day 19, 8 June 2026.
Built from these letters
SPUTNIK starts with S and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read IKNPSTU - 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.
Words that start SPUTNI
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 19
Could you have found SPUTNIK?
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 19 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER