The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
WILE
Definition of WILE
noun
A trick or stratagem practiced for ensnaring or deception; a sly, insidious artifice
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English wile, wyle, from Old Northern French wile (“guile”) and Old English wīl (“wile, trick”) and wiġle (“divination”), from Proto-Germanic *wīlą (“craft, deceit”) (from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, bend”)) and Proto-Germanic *wigulą, *wihulą (“prophecy”) (from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to consecrate, hallow, make holy”)). Cognate with Icelandic vél, væl (“artifice, craft, device, fraud, trick”), Dutch wijle. Doublet of guile.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.4%
of traced words share this origin (11,223)
How it is built
Same root, WILE · 3 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Dutch, Icelandic.
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.
WILE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 31 boards so far. 37 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 13, 2 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 156, 23 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 13, 2 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
WILE starts with W and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EILW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Also seen on Day 13
Could you have found WILE?
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 13 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER