The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SYNCOPE
Definition of SYNCOPE
noun
The elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Learned borrowing from Late Latin syncopē, from Ancient Greek συγκοπή (sunkopḗ), from συγκόπτω (sunkóptō, “cut up”) + -η (-ē, nominalization suffix), from σύν (sún, “beside, with”) + κόπτω (kóptō, “strike, cut off”). Partly continues the (near-)doublets syncopis and sincopin, both from the Old French sincopin (“faintness”) (itself from Late Latin accusative syncopen), with the pathological meaning "a loss of consciousness accompanied by a weak pulse", attested from the fifteenth century. Usage in the form syncope, with the phonological meaning "contraction of a word by omission of middle sounds or letters" attested from the 1520s. Syncopis and sincopin were "re-Latinized" to the form syncope in English in the sixteenth century. The musical usage first occurs after the 1660s, following the musical usage of syncopation and syncopate.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Old French
- Ancient Greek
- Latin
- English
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
9th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
2.9%
of traced words share this origin (837)
branch · 15.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SYNCOPE · 1 relative in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SYNCOPE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 59 boards so far. 272 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 25, 14 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 147, 14 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 25, 14 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SYNCOPE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read CENOPSY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start SYNCOP
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found SYNCOPE?
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 25 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER