The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DRIFT
Definition of DRIFT
noun
Movement; that which moves or is moved. Anything driven at random. A mass of matter which has been driven or forced onward together in a body, or thrown together in a heap, etc., especially by wind or water.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English drift, dryft (“act of driving, drove, shower of rain or snow, impulse”), from Old English *drift (“drift”), from Proto-Germanic *driftiz (“drift”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Equivalent to drive + -t; cognate with North Frisian drift (“drift”), Saterland Frisian Drift (“current, flow, stream, drift”), Dutch drift (“drift, passion, urge”), German Drift (“drift”) and Trift (“drove, pasture”), Danish drift (“impulse, instinct”), Swedish drift (“impulse, instinct”), Icelandic drift (“drift, snow-drift”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,506)
How it is built
Same root, DRIFT · 10 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Swedish.
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
DRIFT in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 26 boards so far. 85 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 8, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 160, 27 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 24, 13 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
DRIFT starts with D and ends with T. Sorted, its letters read DFIRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start DRIFT
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 8
Could you have found DRIFT?
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 8 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER