The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
STICK
Definition of STICK
noun
An elongated piece of wood or similar material, typically put to some use, for example as a wand or baton.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English sticke, stik, stikke (“branch, twig; kindling; mast; pale; stick, stylus”), from Old English sticca (“stick; peg; beam, rod”), from Proto-West Germanic *stikkō, from Proto-Germanic *stikkô (“pole, stick”), from *stikkōną (“to fix, stick”), from *stikaną (“to stick; to stab”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp; to sting”). Cognate with Dutch stek (“home, spot; cutting, a leaf, stem, branch, or root removed from a plant and cultivated to grow a new plant”), German Stecken (“stick”), Vilamovian śtakia (“stick”); also Cornish wosa (“after”), Welsh wedi (“past (time); after”), Latin instigo (“to stimulate”), Ancient Greek στῐ́ζω (stĭ́zō, “to tattoo; to mark; to punctuate”), Central Kurdish تێژ (têj), تیژ (tîj, “sharp; hot, spicy”), Northern Kurdish tîj, tûj (“sharp; hot, spicy; severe”), Ossetian цыхт (cyxt, “cheese”), Persian تیز (tēz / tiz, “sharp; pungent; shrill; piercing; penetrating; nimble, swift; smart”), Sanskrit तेज॑ते (téjate, “to be or become sharp; to activate, energize”). Related to stigma.
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.
STICK in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 5 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 78, 6 August 2026. The most recent board was Day 97, 25 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 21 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 78, 6 August 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
STICK starts with S and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read CIKST - 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 STICK
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found STICK?
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 78 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER