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JOVIAL
Definition of JOVIAL
adjective
Cheerful and good-humoured; jolly, merry.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
First attested in 1590; borrowed from Middle French jovial (“under the influence of Jupiter; of Jove; jovial, jolly”), from Italian gioviale (“(now obsolete) born under the influence of the planet Jupiter”) (attested in Dante, Paradiso, canto XVIII, early 14th century), from Late Latin Ioviālis (“relating to the Roman god Jupiter”), from Iuppiter, Iovis (“the Roman god Jove or Jupiter, counterpart of the Greek god Zeus”) (from Proto-Indo-European *dyew- (“to be bright; heaven, sky”)) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship); analysable as Jove + -ial. Sense 1 (“cheerful and good-humoured”) refers to the fact that individuals born under the astrological influence of the planet Jupiter were believed to have that disposition.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
8.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,656)
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.
JOVIAL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 21 boards so far. 878 players have found it across Outlier's history.
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 10 days.
First found by a player on Day 5, 26 May 2026.
Built from these letters
JOVIAL starts with J and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AIJLOV - 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 JOVIAL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 5
Could you have found JOVIAL?
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.
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