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).
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 (2,231)
branch · 22.3% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, GOON · 2 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Scots, Swedish.
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 42 boards so far. 147 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 8, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 148, 15 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
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