The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
IMPORTUNITY
Definition of IMPORTUNITY
noun
Constant and insistent demanding or proposing, especially if regarded as annoying or upsetting; also, the character of such behaviour; an instance of this.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Late Middle English importunitie, importunyte (“insistence, persistence; grievance; hardship, trouble; inappropriateness (?)”), from Anglo-Norman importunité, and Middle French importunité (“persistent demand; hardship, trouble; something difficult or troublesome; inappropriateness”) (modern French importunité), and their etymon Latin importūnitās (“insolence, rudeness; oppressiveness, relentlessness; unfitness, unsuitableness”), from importūnus (“annoying; rude; inconvenient; unsuitable”) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns denoting states of being). Importūnus is derived from im- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + portus (“harbour, port; haven, refuge”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”), from *per- (“to carry forth, fare; to dare, try; to go through;”)) + -nus (suffix forming adjectives). By surface analysis, importune + -ity (suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives, referring to the state of conforming to what the adjectives describe).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.4%
of traced words share this origin (11,223)
How it is built
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
IMPORTUNITY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 4 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 106, 3 September 2026. The most recent board was Day 152, 19 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 106, 3 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
IMPORTUNITY starts with I and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read IIMNOPRTTUY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. I and T appear more than once.
Words that start IMPORTU
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found IMPORTUNITY?
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 106 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER