The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
TAIKONAUT
Definition of TAIKONAUT
noun
A person who travels in space for the Chinese space program; a Chinese astronaut.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Mandarin 太空 (tàikōng, “space”) + -naut, modelled after astronaut, cosmonaut, spationaut, etc. The term was coined on 19 May 1998 by Chiew Lee Yih (趙里昱 (Zhào Lǐyù)) from Malaysia, who used it first in newsgroups. Almost simultaneously, Chen Lan coined it for use in the Western media.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
29th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.3%
of traced words share this origin (225)
branch · 0.4% of traced words
How it is built
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
TAIKONAUT in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 137, 4 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 21 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 137, 4 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
TAIKONAUT starts with T and ends with T. Sorted, its letters read AAIKNOTTU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. T and A appear more than once.
Words that start TAIKON
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found TAIKONAUT?
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 137 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER