The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FIRE
Definition of FIRE
noun
A (usually self-sustaining) chemical reaction involving the bonding of oxygen with carbon or other fuel, with the production of heat and the presence of flame or smouldering.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English fyr, from Old English fȳr (“fire”), from Proto-West Germanic *fuir, from *fuïr, a regularised form of Proto-Germanic *fōr (“fire”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥. See also Scots feier, fyre (“fire”), Yola vier, vire (“fire”), Saterland Frisian Fjuur, Fjúur (“fire”), West Frisian fjoer (“fire”), Alemannic German Füür (“fire”), Bavarian Feia (“fire”), Central Franconian Fauer, Feier, Füür (“fire”), Cimbrian bôar, vaür, vôar (“fire”), Dutch vier, vuur (“fire”), German Feuer (“fire”), German Low German Füer, Füür (“fire”), Luxembourgish Feier (“fire”), Mòcheno vaier (“fire”), Vilamovian faojer (“fire”), West Flemish vier (“fire”), Yiddish פֿײַער (fayer, “fire”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fyr (“fire”), Icelandic funi (“fire”), Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐌽 (fōn, “fire”). Also, compare Armenian հուր (hur, “fire”), Greek πυρ (pyr, “fire”), Latin pūrgō (“to clean, cleanse, clear, purge, purify”), Umbrian 𐌐𐌉𐌓 (pir, “fire”), Bulgarian фир (fir, “ooze, pickle, soak”), Polish perz (“smoke”), Hittite 𒉺𒄴𒄯 (paḫḫur, “fire”), Luwian 𒉺𒀀𒄷𒌋𒌨 (pāhūr, “fire”), Tocharian A/B por/puwar (“fire”). This was an inanimate noun whose animate counterpart was Proto-Indo-European *h₁n̥gʷnis (see ignite). Cognate to pyre.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
8.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,622)
How it is built
Same root, FIRE · 1 relative in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Scots, Swedish and 1 more.
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.
FIRE in OUTLIER
It has fitted 1 board so far. 55 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 118, 15 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 30 days.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
FIRE starts with F and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EFIR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start FIRE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found FIRE?
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 118 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER