The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
GHASTFUL
Definition of GHASTFUL
adjective
Causing fear; terrifying.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English gastful, equivalent to ghast + -ful. See ghastly.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Middle English
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
4th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
7.6%
of traced words share this origin (2,182)
branch · 22.4% of traced words
How it is built
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
GHASTFUL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 10 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 72, 31 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 112, 9 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 30 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 85, 13 August 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
GHASTFUL starts with G and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AFGHLSTU - 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 GHASTF
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found GHASTFUL?
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 72 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER