The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DOWNING
Definition of DOWNING
verb
present participle and gerund of down
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
DOWNING inherits its ancestry from its root, DOWN.
Line of descent
- Old English
- Middle English
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
7th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.7%
of traced words share this origin (3,042)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, DOWN · 12 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Middle Low German, Scots.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
DOWNING in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 2 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 154, 21 October 2026. The most recent board was Day 159, 26 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 8 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 154, 21 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
DOWNING starts with D and ends with G. Sorted, its letters read DGINNOW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. N appears more than once.
Words that start DOWNIN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found DOWNING?
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 154 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER