The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
GOON
Definition of GOON
noun
A thug; a usually muscular henchman with little intelligence.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Shortened from gooney, from obsolete gony (“simpleton”), used circa 1580, of unknown origin. Perhaps a familiar term derived from Middle English gone, a variant of gome (“man, person”). Gony was applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (circa 1839). The term goon first carried the meaning "stupid person" (circa 1921). Compare Scots goni, guni (“a bogey, bugbear, hobgoblin”), dialectal Swedish gonnar (“elves, goblins”, plural).
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.
GOON in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 28 boards so far. 120 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 8, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 99, 27 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First found by a player on Day 8, 29 May 2026.
Built from these letters
GOON starts with G and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read GNOO - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. O appears more than once, including a double letter.
Words that start GOON
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 8
Could you have found GOON?
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 8 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER