The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
BUSY
Definition of BUSY
adjective
Crowded with business or activities; having a great deal going on.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English bisy, busie, from Old English bisiġ (“busy, occupied, diligent”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisīg (“diligent; zealous; busy”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian biesich (“active, diligent, hard-working, industrious”), Dutch bezig (“busy”), Low German besig (“busy”). The spelling with ⟨u⟩ represents the pronunciation of the West Midland and Southern dialects while the Modern English pronunciation with /ɪ/ is from the dialects of the East Midlands.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
8th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
3.1%
of traced words share this origin (899)
branch · 22.3% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, BUSY · 2 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Dutch.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
BUSY in OUTLIER
It has fitted 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 76, 4 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 70 days.
First found by a player on Day 20, 9 June 2026.
Built from these letters
BUSY starts with B and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read BSUY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start BUSY
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found BUSY?
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 76 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER