The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DROWN
Definition of DROWN
verb
To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English drownen, drounen, drunen (“to drown”), of obscure and uncertain origin. The OED suggests an unattested Old English form *drūnian. Harper 2001 points to Old English druncnian, ġedruncnian (> Middle English drunknen, dronknen (“to drown”)), "probably influenced" by Old Norse drukkna (cf. Icelandic drukkna, Danish drukne (“to drown”)). Funk & Wagnall's has 'of uncertain origin'. It has been theorised (see e.g. ODS) that it may represent a direct loan of Old Norse drukkna, but this is described by the OED as being "on phonetic and other grounds [...] highly improbable", unless one considers the possibility of an unattested variant in Old Norse *drunkna.
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.
DROWN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 22 boards so far. 42 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 21, 10 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 102, 30 August 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 21, 10 June 2026.
Built from these letters
DROWN starts with D and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read DNORW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
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 DROWN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 21
Could you have found DROWN?
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 21 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER