The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
DWELL
Definition of DWELL
noun
A period of time in which a system or component remains in a given state.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English dwellen (“delay, live, remain, persist”), from Old English dwellan (“to mislead, deceive; be led into error, stray”), from Proto-Germanic *dwaljaną (“to hold up, delay; hesitate”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwelH- (“to whirl, swirl, blur, obfuscate”), which is cognate with Old Norse dvelja and related to Proto-Germanic *dwelaną (“to go astray”), which underwent semantic change in its descendants. Cognates include Danish dvæle (“to linger, dwell”) and Swedish dväljas (“to dwell, reside”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
14th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
1%
of traced words share this origin (780)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, DWELL · 7 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Swedish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
DWELL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 154, 21 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 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
DWELL starts with D and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read DELLW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. L appears more than once, including a double letter.
Words that start DWELL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found DWELL?
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