The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
JOHN
Definition of JOHN
noun
A prostitute's client.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From the male given name John (q.v.), whose ubiquity led to extensive use of the name in generic contexts. Its use for toilets derives from John and Cousin John, which both probably relate to jacques and jakes, used in equivalent senses by the British and Irish.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Irish
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
21st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.5%
of traced words share this origin (142)
branch · 0.8% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, JOHN · 1 relative 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.
JOHN in OUTLIER
It has fitted 25 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 5, 26 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 142, 9 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 11 days.
First found by a player on Day 51, 10 July 2026.
Built from these letters
JOHN starts with J and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read HJNO - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram. It uses J - among the least common letters in written English.
Words that start JOHN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 5
Could you have found JOHN?
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 5 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER