The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
FUMBLE
Definition of FUMBLE
verb
To handle nervously or awkwardly.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From late Middle English, from Low German fummeln, fommeln, fammeln (German fummeln), or Dutch fommelen. Or, perhaps from a Scandinavian/North Germanic source; compare related Old Norse fálma, Icelandic fálma, Danish fumle, especially Swedish fumla, famla, with variants: fumbla (“fumble”), fambla (“famble”), related to Swedish fim, fem (Danish fim, Norwegian fim, feima), with a root meaning of “cover, coating of foam or figuratively ditto”, cognate to German Feim (“surf”) and English foam. Possibly has (a more or less unconscious) connection to fathom (via Old Norse faðmr, Swedish famn) in the sense of “embrace”. The ultimate origin for either could perhaps be imitative of fumbling. Or, from Proto-Indo-European *pal- (“to shake, swing”), see also Latin palpo (“to pat, touch softly”), and possibly Proto-West Germanic *fōlijan (“to feel”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
FUMBLE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 21 boards so far. 88 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 30, 19 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 99, 27 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 30, 19 June 2026.
Built from these letters
FUMBLE starts with F and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read BEFLMU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start FUMBLE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 30
Could you have found FUMBLE?
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 30 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER