The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.

DEFER

/dɪˈfɜː/5 letters

Definition of DEFER

verb

To delay or postpone.

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Where it comes from

Originally a variant of (and hence a doublet of) differ; from Middle English differren (“to postpone”), from Old French differer, from Latin differō. Doublet of differ and dilate. See also infer, collate and confer, delate and defer, relate and refer as well as prelate and prefer among others.

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

Rarity score
Withheld
Revealed only in play
Tier
Withheld
Find it yourself

OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.

DEFER in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 6 boards so far.

Day 1Day 102
Its 6 boards, across 102 finished boards · taller bars are busier boards
6
Boards found on
46
First board
99
Latest board
37
Longest gap, days

It first turned up on Day 46, 5 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 99, 27 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.

First ever to find it

cakes321

on Day 46, 5 July 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers

Built from these letters

DEFER
5
Letters
2
Vowels
3
Consonants
4
Different letters
1
Longest consonant run
1
Longest vowel run

DEFER starts with D and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read DEEFR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. E appears more than once.

Same letters, different word

2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.

Words that start DEFER

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

DEFERSDEFERENTDEFERRALDEFERREDDEFERRERDEFERABLEDEFERENCEDEFERENTSDEFERMENTDEFERRALSDEFERRERSDEFERRING

Could you have found DEFER?

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 46 - and most players walked straight past it.

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The OUTLIER card for DEFERDownload image