The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DEAR
Definition of DEAR
adjective
High in price; expensive.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English dere, from Old English dēore, dīere, dīore, dȳre (“of great value or excellence, expensive, beloved”), from Proto-West Germanic *diurī, from Proto-Germanic *diurijaz (“dear, precious; expensive”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn; hot, warm”). Cognate with Yola dear (“dear”), Saterland Frisian djuur (“precious, dear, costly, expensive”), Alemannic German tüür (“expensive”), Dutch dier, duur (“expensive”), German teuer (“expensive”), Vilamovian taojer, tojer (“dear”), West Flemish diere (“expensive”), Yiddish טײַער (tayer, “expensive”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish dyr (“expensive”), Faroese dýrur (“expensive”), Icelandic dýr (“expensive”), Finnish tyyris (“expensive”), Livonian tõurõz (“dear”), Northern Sami divrras (“expensive”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,595)
How it is built
Same root, DEAR · 8 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Yiddish.
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
DEAR in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 14 boards so far. 18 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 155, 22 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 9 days.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
DEAR starts with D and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read ADER - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
5 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start DEAR
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found DEAR?
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 7 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER