The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
GROOVE
Definition of GROOVE
noun
A long, narrow channel or depression; e.g., such a slot cut into a hard material to provide a location for an engineering component, a tire groove, or a geological channel or depression.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English grov, grove, groof, grofe (“cave; pit; mining shaft”), probably from Old Norse gróf (“pit”) or from Middle Dutch groeve (“furrow, ditch”), both from Proto-West Germanic *grōbu, from Proto-Germanic *grōbō (“groove, furrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scrape, bury”). Cognate with Cimbrian gruuba (“gorge, ravine”), Dutch groef, groeve (“groove; pit, grave”), German Grube (“ditch, pit”), Luxembourgish Grouf (“pit, mine”), Mòcheno gruab (“mine”), Icelandic gróf (“pit, hollow”), Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐍉𐌱𐌰 (grōba, “foxhole”), Serbo-Croatian grèbati (“scratch, dig”). Related to Old English grafan (“to dig”). More at grave.
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.
GROOVE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 11 boards so far.
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 ever to find it
on Day 25, 14 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
GROOVE starts with G and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EGOORV - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. O appears more than once, including a double letter.
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 GROOVE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 8
Could you have found GROOVE?
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