The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
CHERNOZEM
Definition of CHERNOZEM
noun
A fertile black soil containing a very high percentage of humus (3% to 15%) and high percentages of phosphoric acids, phosphorus and ammonia.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Russian чернозём (černozjóm, “black soil”). The letter ё (jo) is usually written as е (je) in Russian, more accurately transliterated as "chernozyom"; compare чернозе́мье (černozémʹje), where ё (jo) is changed to е (je).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Russian
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
20th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.5%
of traced words share this origin (394)
branch · 0.7% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, CHERNOZEM · 1 relative 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.
CHERNOZEM in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 176, 12 November 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
observedgravityPATRONContributor
on Day 176, 12 November 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
CHERNOZEM starts with C and ends with M. Sorted, its letters read CEEHMNORZ - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. E appears more than once. It uses Z - among the least common letters in written English.
Words that start CHERNO
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found CHERNOZEM?
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 176 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER