The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.

GLAD

/ɡlæd/4 letters

Definition of GLAD

adjective

Pleased; happy; gratified.

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Where it comes from

From Middle English glad, gled, from Old English glæd (“shining; bright; cheerful; glad”), from Proto-Germanic *gladaz (“shiny; gleaming; radiant; happy; glossy; smooth; flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰladʰ-, from *ǵʰelh₂- (“to shine”). Cognate with Scots gled, glaid (“shining; bright; glad”), Saterland Frisian glääd (“smooth; sleek”), West Frisian glêd (“smooth”), Dutch glad (“smooth; sleek; slippery”), German glatt (“smooth; sleek; slippery”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish glad (“glad; happy; cheerful”), Icelandic glaður (“glad; joyful; cheery”), Latin glaber (“smooth; hairless; bald”), Russian гла́дкий (gládkij, “smooth”). Doublet of glatt.

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

Word DNA

Line of descent

  1. Proto-Indo-European
  2. Proto-Germanic
  3. Old English
  4. Middle English
  5. English

4 recorded generations before English.

Proto-Indo-European

Deepest traced root

2nd

of 59 source languages in OUTLIER

14.4%

of traced words share this origin (11,223)

How it is built

adjective1 syllable

Same root, GLAD · 5 relatives in the game

Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Latin, Norwegian, Russian, Scots, Swedish.

Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →

Rarity score
Withheld
Revealed only in play
Tier
Withheld
Find it yourself

OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.

GLAD in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 16 boards so far. 21 players have found it across Outlier's history.

Day 1Day 157
Its 16 boards, across 157 finished boards · taller bars are busier boards
16
Boards found on
12
First board
145
Latest board
21
Longest gap, days

It first turned up on Day 12, 1 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 145, 12 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 12 days.

First found by a player on Day 12, 1 June 2026.

Built from these letters

GLAD
4
Letters
1
Vowels
3
Consonants
4
Different letters
2
Longest consonant run
1
Longest vowel run

GLAD starts with G and ends with D. Sorted, its letters read ADGL - 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 GLAD

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

Could you have found GLAD?

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 12 - and most players walked straight past it.

Play today's OUTLIER