The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
WHELM
Definition of WHELM
verb
To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English whelmen (“to turn over, capsize; to invert, turn upside down”), perhaps from Old English *hwealmnian, a variant of *hwealfnian, from hwealf (“arched, concave, vaulted; an arched or vaulted ceiling”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwalb, from Proto-Germanic *hwalbą (“arch, vault”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp- (“to curve”). The English word is cognate with Dutch welven (“to arch”), Old Saxon bihwelvian (“to cover, hide”), German wölben (“to bend, curve, arch”), Icelandic hvelfa (“to overturn”), German Walm (“a vaulted roof”), Icelandic hvolf (“vaulted ceiling”), Ancient Greek κόλπος (kólpos, “bosom, hollow, gulf”). The noun is derived from the verb.
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.
WHELM in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 33 boards so far. 65 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 22, 11 June 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 22, 11 June 2026.
Built from these letters
WHELM starts with W and ends with M. Sorted, its letters read EHLMW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start WHELM
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 22
Could you have found WHELM?
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 22 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER