The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FANS
Definition of FANS
noun
plural of fan
FAN
symbol
ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Fang (Bantu).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
FANS inherits its ancestry from its root, FAN.
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,700)
How it is built
Same root, FAN · 9 relatives in the game
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
FANS in OUTLIER
It has fitted 54 boards so far. 31 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 18, 7 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 165, 1 November 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
FANS starts with F and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read AFNS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start FANS
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 18
Could you have found FANS?
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 18 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER