The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
WHETSTONE
Definition of WHETSTONE
noun
A sharpening stone; a hard stone or piece of synthetically bonded hard minerals that has been formed with at least one flat surface, used to sharpen or hone an edged tool.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English whetston, wheston, from Old English hwetstān, from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjastain (“whetstone”). Equivalent to whet (“to sharpen”) + stone.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
8th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.3%
of traced words share this origin (2,720)
branch · 22.6% 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.
WHETSTONE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 152, 19 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 13 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 152, 19 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
WHETSTONE starts with W and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EEHNOSTTW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. E and T appear more than once.
Words that start WHETST
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found WHETSTONE?
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 152 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER