The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ADDLE
Definition of ADDLE
adjective
Having lost the power of development, and become rotten; putrid.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English adel (“rotten”), from Old English adel, adela (“mire, pool, liquid excrement”), from Proto-West Germanic *adal, from Proto-Germanic *adalaz, *adalô (“cattle urine, liquid manure”). Akin to Scots adill, North Frisian ethel (“urine”), Saterland Frisian adel (“dung”), Middle Low German adele (“mud, liquid manure”) (Dutch aal (“liquid manure”)), Old Swedish adel (“urine”), Danish ajle (“liquid manure”), Bavarian Adel (“liquid manure”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
7th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.5%
of traced words share this origin (922)
branch · 22.7% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, ADDLE · 2 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Middle Low German, Scots, Swedish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
ADDLE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far. 10 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 131, 28 September 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 131, 28 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
ADDLE starts with A and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ADDEL - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. D appears more than once, including a double letter.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start ADDLE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found ADDLE?
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 131 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER