The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CAPTIVING
Definition of CAPTIVING
verb
present participle and gerund of captive
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
CAPTIVING inherits its ancestry from its root, CAPTIVE.
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
13th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
1%
of traced words share this origin (830)
branch · 12.8% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, CAPTIVE · 4 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Proto-Indo-European.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
CAPTIVING in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 2 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 72, 31 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 116, 13 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 45 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 116, 13 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CAPTIVING starts with C and ends with G. Sorted, its letters read ACGIINPTV - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. I appears more than once.
Words that start CAPTIV
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found CAPTIVING?
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 72 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER