The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
MEAN
Definition of MEAN
verb
To intend. To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English menen (“to intend; remember; lament; comfort”), from Old English mǣnan (“to mean, complain”), Proto-West Germanic *mainijan, from Proto-Germanic *mainijaną (“to mean, think; complain”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyn- (“to think”), or perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meyno-, extended form of Proto-Indo-European *mey-. Germanic cognates include West Frisian miene (“to deem, think”) (Old Frisian mēna (“to signify”)), Dutch menen (“to believe, think, mean”) (Middle Dutch menen (“to think, intend”)), German meinen (“to think, mean, believe”), Old Saxon mēnian. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish mían (“wish, desire”) and Polish mienić (“to signify, believe”). Non-Indo-European cognates include Finnish mainita (“to mention”), Finnish meinata (“to mean, to plan, to intend”) Estonian mainima (“to mention”), Northern Sami máinnastit (“to tell”). Related to moan.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
MEAN in OUTLIER
It has fitted 1 board so far. 16 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 90, 18 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 7 days.
First found by a player on Day 9, 29 May 2026.
Built from these letters
MEAN starts with M and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read AEMN - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
4 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start MEAN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found MEAN?
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 90 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER