The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ERGON
Definition of ERGON
noun
Work, measured in terms of the quantity of heat to which it is equivalent.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon). Doublet of erg and work. In philosophy, the word is loaned in its capacity as a technical term in Aristotelianism, in English usage following Alexander Grant, The Ethics of Aristotle (1857). In classical thermodynamics, the term is coined as translating German Werk. Rudolf Clausius (1864) made a technical distinction between Werk and Arbeit, both translating to English "work", and suggested Ergon for the purposes of the translation of his terminology into other modern languages. The author has used the German word Werk, which is almost synonymous with Arbeit, but proposes the term Ergon as more suitable for introduction into other languages. The Greek word ἔργον is so closely allied to the English word work, that both are quite well suited to designate two magnitudes which are essentially the same, but measured according to different units.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Ancient Greek
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
12.7%
of traced words share this origin (3,825)
branch · 12.7% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, ERGON · 1 relative in the game
Its etymology also names German, Latin.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
ERGON in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 9 boards so far. 12 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 94, 22 August 2026. The most recent board was Day 152, 19 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 94, 22 August 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
ERGON starts with E and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read EGNOR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
4 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start ERGON
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found ERGON?
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 94 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER