Outlier Is a New Crossword Game That Makes Me Feel Smart.
I love finding daily games that let you play with words in new ways, and my latest favorite is Outlier . We’ve seen daily quests before (maybe you’re using our daily Strands clues ?), but this one is a little different. Instead of finding specific words—or the most words—you’re asked to find the rarest words.
In Outlier, you’re given a grid of letters. The grid isn’t important; you don’t need to worry about which letters touch each other. Think of them more like a stack of Scrabble tiles and use as many as you want, in any order, to form a word.
Your score will depend on how uncommon your words are compared to their frequency in the English language. If you choose obvious words—RATS, STAR, TARS—you won’t score very high. But if you can find rare words, you’ll get more points. Each possible word has a rarity score, and your overall score is evaluated against the top 10 (rarest) words you could find.
But beyond scoring, it’s also important to find words that other players have already found. You’ll know this after the game. The first time I played, I found three words that no one else had found that day (yet): SKIVE, WHOLES, and WAIN. I knew the word “wain” from old books; it was the medieval name for the Ursa Major constellation, meaning a farm wagon. My best word that day was GLOWERS, which only 38 people have found in any puzzle in the entire history of Outlier. Overall, I scored 806 points, which is pretty good.
How to play Outlier
To play the daily game, visit playoutlier.com and scan the grid to find words of four or more letters. The letters don’t have to be connected; you use only the letters you need, without looking for connections.
Enter a word in the field below, and the letters you type will be highlighted on the game board so you can keep track of which ones you’ve used. Press Enter when you’re finished typing. You’ll receive points for the word’s rarity, after which you can start over with a different word.
After you’ve played 10 words, the game ends, and your score is tallied along with some statistics—this is where I learned about the first words I found that day. Outlier also keeps several lists. For example, pioneers are the people who found the word first in the game’s history, and there’s a leaderboard ranked by the number of first words each participant found.
If you want to compete against others, there’s also Outlier Live . Instead of a daily game board, you’ll get a dedicated board just for your game and only 60 seconds to play a round against other participants in the room.
How to Win Outlier
Take your time. Some words may jump out at you, but the goal isn’t to be the fastest or guess the most—it’s to skip the easy and obvious words and try to find something special.
Look at the board type, the name of which will be listed above the board, just below today’s date. Click on it, and you’ll get an idea of how difficult or easy it is to play. If it’s “Deep Water,” there aren’t many matching words, but those that do exist usually yield a fairly high score. The opposite is “Open Board,” a “generous” board with lots of words to search for. Beware of “Bait” boards, which “look generous but play sneakily.” On these, put extra effort into skipping easy words and continuing to search for the rarer ones.
To find rare words, I sometimes scan the board to see what appears there, and then ask myself if I know any rarer words that use similar letters. For example, if you see WRITE, don’t stop there—it’s a common word, as is WRITES. But if you remove one letter, you get WRIT, which is rare, or WRITS, which is rare. If the board also has UNDERWRITE, it’s another rare word, and UNDERWRITES can lead to an even rarer word considered “epic.”
The website Outlier has a guide to finding rare words , and it points out that there are two types of rare words. One type consists of words that mean uncommon things, uncommon because their meaning is rarely needed. (We don’t spell words as often as we read misspelled words.) The other type is when an uncommon word has the same meaning as a simpler word: we’re more likely to say “document” or “court order” than “write.” So, think about uncommon synonyms for words you already know.
The Outlier guide also suggests rearranging the letters of the word you find and asking what else it could mean—similar to my advice above. The guide also notes that after completing the game, you’ll start to notice uncommon words in everyday life, and you might want to make a list to remember them.
Does Outlier require a subscription?
Outlier doesn’t require a subscription, but creating an account will allow you to appear on leaderboards, like in Pioneers, and see your gameplay stats over a period of time. If you’d like to support the game financially , there’s a Patreon or donation option. The game itself is free.