The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FROWSTY
Definition of FROWSTY
adjective
Of an atmosphere: not fresh; close, musty, stuffy; of an object: having a musty, stale odour.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Other senses
FROWSTY carries 3 further meanings.
adjective
Having a stale smell; musty.
adjective
musty; stuffy (atmosphere)
adjective
stale and unclean smelling
Where it comes from
Origin unknown; possibly a variant of frowsy (frousy, frouzy, frowzy), etymology also unknown; and possibly related to Old French frouste (“decayed, in a state of ruin”). Compare also froughy, frow.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Old French
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
9th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
2.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,283)
branch · 12.9% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, FROWSTY · 1 relative in the game
FROWSTY in a sentence
“Alas, the taverns reputation declined over the years and by 1775 Garrick was referring to the frowsty bowers of the Dog and Duck as peopled with half-drunk fauns and dryads breaking lamps.”
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
FROWSTY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 43 boards so far. 58 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 35, 24 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 150, 17 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 35, 24 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
FROWSTY starts with F and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read FORSTWY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that mean much the same
Near-synonyms of FROWSTY. Not interchangeable at the board - the grid decides that - but close in meaning.
Words that start FROWST
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found FROWSTY?
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 35 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER