The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
LEAN
Definition of LEAN
verb
To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English lenen (“to lean”), from Old English hleonian, hlinian (“to lean, recline, lie down, rest”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlinēn, from Proto-Germanic *hlināną (“to lean, incline”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley-. Cognate via Proto-Germanic with Middle Dutch leunen (“to lean”), German lehnen (“to lean”); via Proto-Indo-European with climate, cline.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,595)
How it is built
Same root, LEAN · 6 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Middle Dutch.
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.
LEAN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 14 boards so far. 17 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 10, 30 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 154, 21 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 10 days.
First found by a player on Day 10, 30 May 2026.
Built from these letters
LEAN starts with L and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read AELN - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start LEAN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 10
Could you have found LEAN?
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 10 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER