The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
INCUBATE
Definition of INCUBATE
verb
To brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue through the provision of ideal environmental conditions.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
First attested in 1641; borrowed from Latin incubātus, an alternative to incubitus, perfect passive participle of incubō (“to hatch”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- (“in”) + cubō (“to lie”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Latin
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
30.7%
of traced words share this origin (23,888)
branch · 30.7% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, INCUBATE · 4 relatives in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
INCUBATE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 19 boards so far. 22 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 23, 12 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 147, 14 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 8 days.
First found by a player on Day 23, 12 June 2026.
Built from these letters
INCUBATE starts with I and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read ABCEINTU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start INCUBA
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 23
Could you have found INCUBATE?
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 23 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER