The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
TANTALUM
Definition of TANTALUM
noun
A chemical element (symbol Ta) with atomic number 73: a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion-resistant. An atom of this element.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
A New Latin word derived by Swedish chemist Anders Gustaf Ekeberg in 1802, from Latin Tantalus, named after Tantalus, alluding to the element's incapacity to absorb acid. See -ium.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
24th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
0.4%
of traced words share this origin (112)
branch · 22.3% 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.
TANTALUM 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 7 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
TANTALUM starts with T and ends with M. Sorted, its letters read AALMNTTU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. T and A appear more than once.
Words that start TANTAL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found TANTALUM?
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