The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FAINEANT
Definition of FAINEANT
noun
An irresponsible or lazy person.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Old French fay neant, alteration of feignant (“idler”), present participle of feindre, modelled on fait (“does”) + neant (“nothing”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Old French
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
9th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
2.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,513)
branch · 12.8% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, FAINEANT · 1 relative in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
FAINEANT in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 3 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 139, 6 October 2026. The most recent board was Day 154, 21 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 22 days.
First found by a player on Day 139, 6 October 2026.
Built from these letters
FAINEANT starts with F and ends with T. Sorted, its letters read AAEFINNT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. A and N appear more than once.
Words that start FAINEA
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found FAINEANT?
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 139 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER