The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DEFUNCTION
Definition of DEFUNCTION
noun
Death.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
from Latin dēfūnctiō (“execution, performance, death”), from dēfungor (“to finish, perform, die”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Latin
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
33%
of traced words share this origin (9,457)
branch · 33% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, DEFUNCTION · 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.
DEFUNCTION in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 139, 6 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 139, 6 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
DEFUNCTION starts with D and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read CDEFINNOTU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. N appears more than once.
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 DEFUNC
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found DEFUNCTION?
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 139 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER