The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
WHELK
Definition of WHELK
noun
Certain edible sea snails, especially, any one of numerous species of large marine gastropods belonging to Buccinidae, much used as food in Europe.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English whelke, a variant of welk, from Old English weoloc, wiloc, wioloc, weluc, from Proto-West Germanic *weluk (compare Middle Dutch willoc, Dutch wulk), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, revolve”) (whence vulva and volute). Unetymological spelling with wh- from the 15th century.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
WHELK in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 37 boards so far. 184 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 102, 30 August 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
WHELK starts with W and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read EHKLW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start WHELK
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found WHELK?
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 7 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER