The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ANNEAL
Definition of ANNEAL
verb
To subject to great heat and then (often slow) cooling, and sometimes reheating and further cooling, for the purpose of rendering less brittle; to temper; to toughen.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English anelen, onelen, from Old English onǣlan (“to burn, ignite, set fire to, consume, heat, enlighten, incite, inflame, inspire, kindle”), from Proto-Germanic *ana (“on”) + Proto-Germanic *ailijaną (“to burn”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- (“to burn”). The double-N spelling may have arisen by analogy with Latinate verbs like announce, annex, and annul. The word is related to Old English onāl (“that which is burnt, burning; incense”), Old English āl (“fire, burning”), Icelandic eldur (“fire”), Swedish eld (“fire, flame”), Danish ild (“fire”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
8 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
35th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.2%
of traced words share this origin (53)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, ANNEAL · 3 relatives in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
ANNEAL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 132, 29 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 132, 29 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
ANNEAL starts with A and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AAELNN - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. A and N appear more than once, including a double letter.
Words that start ANNEAL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found ANNEAL?
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 132 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER