The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DOWF
Definition of DOWF
adjective
Dull; flat; denoting a defect of spirit, animation, or courage; melancholy; gloomy; inactive; listless; lethargic; pithless; vapid; lacking force; frivolous.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English [Term?], from Old Norse daufr (“deaf”) (whence also Icelandic daufur (“deaf, dull”)), from Proto-Germanic *daubaz (“deaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰūbʰ-, *dʰūp- (“to smoke”). Doublet of daff, deaf, and dof. Compare dove ("to slumber"). More at deaf.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
DOWF in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 6 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 72, 31 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 100, 28 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 20 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 79, 7 August 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
DOWF starts with D and ends with F. Sorted, its letters read DFOW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start DOWF
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found DOWF?
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