The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DOWNBURST
Definition of DOWNBURST
noun
A powerful downward air current, especially one during a thunderstorm, often creating powerful divergent horizontal winds and strong wind shear upon impacting the surface.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From down- + burst, coined by American meteorologist Horace R. Byers and Japanese and American meteorologist Tetsuya T. Fujita in November 1975.
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.
DOWNBURST in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 4 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 72, 31 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 110, 7 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 10 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 105, 2 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
DOWNBURST starts with D and ends with T. Sorted, its letters read BDNORSTUW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start DOWNBU
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found DOWNBURST?
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