The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FOCUS
Definition of FOCUS
noun
A point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”); see there for more. Related to fuel. Kepler introduced the term into mathematics and the sciences in describing elliptical orbits of planets (quote from Nicholas Mee): "One of the interesting properties of an ellipse is that if there were a light bulb at one focus, then all the light that it emits would reflect off the ellipse and converge at the other focus. This is why Kepler originally used the name focus for these points."
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Latin
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
30.6%
of traced words share this origin (25,378)
branch · 30.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, FOCUS · 8 relatives 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.
FOCUS in OUTLIER
It has fitted 2 boards so far. 41 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 118, 15 September 2026. The most recent board was Day 153, 20 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 15 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 17, 6 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
FOCUS starts with F and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read CFOSU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start FOCUS
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found FOCUS?
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