The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
TAMBOURIN
Definition of TAMBOURIN
noun
Obsolete form of tambourine (percussion instrument).
noun
A percussion instrument consisting of a small, usually wooden, hoop closed on one side with a drum frame and featuring jingling metal disks on the tread; it is most often held in the hand and shaken rhythmically; by extension, any frame drum.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Late 18th century, borrowed from French ("small drum"), from tambour, in turn from Persian tabīra.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
19th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
0.6%
of traced words share this origin (163)
branch · 0.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, TAMBOURIN · 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.
TAMBOURIN in OUTLIER
It has fitted 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 51, 10 July 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 96 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 143, 10 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
TAMBOURIN starts with T and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read ABIMNORTU - 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 TAMBOU
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 51
Could you have found TAMBOURIN?
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 51 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER