The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
TELL
Definition of TELL
verb
Mental senses related to determining, reckoning, or perceiving To determine the number, amount, or value of [something].
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English tellen (“to count, tell”), from Old English tellan (“to count, tell”), from Proto-West Germanic *talljan, from Proto-Germanic *taljaną, *talzijaną (“to count, enumerate”), from Proto-Germanic *talą, *talō (“number, counting”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol- (“calculation, fraud”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian tälle (“to say; tell”), West Frisian telle (“to count”), West Frisian fertelle (“to tell, narrate”), Dutch tellen (“to count”) and Dutch vertellen (“to tell”), Low German tellen (“to count”), German zählen, Faroese telja, Swedish tala (“to speak”). More at tale.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,769)
How it is built
Same root, TELL · 3 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Dutch, Swedish.
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
TELL in OUTLIER
It has fitted 6 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 118, 15 September 2026. The most recent board was Day 166, 2 November 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 110, 7 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
TELL starts with T and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read ELLT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. L appears more than once, including a double letter.
Words that start TELL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found TELL?
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 118 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER