The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
TARANTULA
Definition of TARANTULA
noun
Any of the large, hairy, mostly New World spiders comprising the family Theraphosidae.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Medieval Latin tarantula, from Old Italian tarantola, from Taranto (“seaport in southern Italy”), from Latin Tarentum (“Latin name of the town”), from Ancient Greek Τάρᾱς (Tárās, “Greek name of the town”), genitive Τᾰ́ρᾰντος; compare Modern Greek Τάραντας (Tárantas) and Tarantino Tarde. probably from Illyrian *darandos (“oak”). Sense 3 (“Lycosa tarantula”) is the original sense of the word, and refers to the fact that the spider was common in the Apulia region where Taranto is located. Sense 1 (“New World spider in the family Theraphosidae”), the main modern sense of the word, may have been a transferred use of Spanish tarántula (“tarantula (Lycosa tarantula)”) to describe large, hairy spiders found in the New World.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Ancient Greek
- Italian
- Latin
- English
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
12.4%
of traced words share this origin (10,357)
branch · 12.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, TARANTULA · 2 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Spanish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
TARANTULA in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far. 14 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 148, 15 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 21 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 148, 15 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
TARANTULA starts with T and ends with A. Sorted, its letters read AAALNRTTU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. T and A appear more than once.
Words that start TARANT
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found TARANTULA?
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 148 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER