The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FORMATIVE
Definition of FORMATIVE
adjective
Capable of forming something.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English formatyve, formatif (“having the ability to form”), from Old French formatif, formative (modern French formatif), from Medieval Latin formātīvus, from Latin fōrmātus + -īvus (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘doing’ or ‘related to doing’). Fōrmātus is the perfect passive participle of fōrmō (“to form, to shape”), from fōrma (“a form, shape”); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “a form, shape”) (see further at that entry). By surface analysis, form + -ative.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
12.6%
of traced words share this origin (3,789)
branch · 12.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, FORMATIVE · 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.
FORMATIVE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 25 boards so far. 75 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 33, 22 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 148, 15 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First found by a player on Day 33, 22 June 2026.
Built from these letters
FORMATIVE starts with F and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read AEFIMORTV - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start FORMAT
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 33
Could you have found FORMATIVE?
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 33 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER