The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
LESS
Definition of LESS
adverb
comparative degree of little
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Adverb From Middle English les, lesse, leasse, lasse, from Old English lǣs (“smaller, less”), from Proto-Germanic *laisiz, from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“to shrink, grow thin, be gentle”).(Can this etymology be sourced?) Cognate with Old Frisian lēs (“less”), Old Saxon lēs (“less”). According to Kroonen (2013), from a northern Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *leh₂is- or *leh₃is-, which he connects to Lithuanian liesas (“lean”). Determiner and preposition from Middle English lees, lesse, leasse, lasse, from Old English lǣssa (“less”), from Proto-Germanic *laisizan-, from Proto-Germanic *laisiz (“smaller, lesser, fewer, lower”) (see above). Cognate with Old Frisian lessa (“less”). Verb from Middle English lessen, from the determiner. Noun from Middle English lesse, from the determiner.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
9%
of traced words share this origin (2,585)
How it is built
Same root, LESS · 1 relative in the game
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.
LESS in OUTLIER
It has fitted 2 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 76, 4 August 2026. The most recent board was Day 118, 15 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 24 days.
First found by a player on Day 76, 4 August 2026.
Built from these letters
LESS starts with L and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read ELSS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. S appears more than once, including a double letter.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start LESS
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found LESS?
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 76 - and most players walked straight past it.
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