The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FAIL
Definition of FAIL
verb
To be unsuccessful.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English failen, borrowed from Old French falir, from Vulgar Latin *fallire, alteration of Latin fallere (“to deceive, disappoint”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰāl- (“to lie, deceive”) or Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el- (“to stumble”). Compare Alemannic German fääle (“to lack”), Cimbrian béelan, véelan (“to fail”), veln (“to be absent, missing”), Dutch falen, feilen (“to fail, miss”), German fallieren, fehlen (“to fail, miss, lack”), Danish fejle (“to fail, err”), Swedish fallera (“to fail, break, malfunction”), Spanish fallar (“to fail, miss”).
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.
FAIL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 24 boards so far. 27 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 4, 25 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 109, 6 September 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 4, 25 May 2026.
Built from these letters
FAIL starts with F and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AFIL - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start FAIL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 4
Could you have found FAIL?
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 4 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER