The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
LEADING
Definition of LEADING
verb
present participle and gerund of lead
noun
A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished; both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 82, symbol Pb (from Latin plumbum).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English ledinge, ledynge, ledand, ledande, ledende, from Old English lǣdende, from Proto-West Germanic *laidijandī, from Proto-Germanic *laidijandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *laidijaną (“to lead”), equivalent to lead + -ing. Compare West Frisian liedend, Dutch leidend, German leitend, Swedish ledande, Icelandic leiðandi.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
7th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
3.4%
of traced words share this origin (970)
branch · 22.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, LEAD · 4 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Dutch, Icelandic, Swedish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
LEADING in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 6 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 96, 24 August 2026. The most recent board was Day 141, 8 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 96, 24 August 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
LEADING starts with L and ends with G. Sorted, its letters read ADEGILN - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Could you have found LEADING?
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 96 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER