The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FOMENTATION
Definition of FOMENTATION
noun
The act of fomenting; the application of warm, soft, medicinal substances, as for the purpose of easing pain by relaxing the skin, or of discussing (dispersing) tumours.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English fōmentāciǒun (“act of fomenting; lotion or poultice applied to a diseased part of the body”), from Late Latin fōmentātiō, fōmentātiōnem, from fōmentāre (from fōmentum (“lotion; compress, poultice; warm application; fomentation”), from foveō (“to warm, keep warm; to cherish, nurture; to bathe, foment”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn; warm, hot”)) + -ātiō, -ātiōnem (suffix forming a noun relating to some action or the result of an action); analysable as foment + -ation.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (12,132)
How it is built
Same root, FOMENTATION · 1 relative 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.
FOMENTATION in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 166, 2 November 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 166, 2 November 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
FOMENTATION starts with F and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read AEFIMNNOOTT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. O, N and T appear more than once.
Could you have found FOMENTATION?
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 166 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER