The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
NEOPHOBIA
Definition of NEOPHOBIA
noun
The fear or hatred of novelty, new things, innovation, or unfamiliar places or situations.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Other senses
NEOPHOBIA carries 3 further meanings.
noun
Fear of novelty; abhorrence of what is new or unaccustomed; dislike of innovation.
noun
The fear or dislike of new things.
noun
a morbid fear of novelty
Where it comes from
From neo- + -phobia.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
How it is built
Same root, NEOPHOBIA · 1 relative in the game
NEOPHOBIA in a sentence
“Dow: There's a subset of phobias called neophobia, which is basically being afraid of new foods.”
Freaky Eaters' Dr. Mike Dow and JJ Virgin: People Tune In for the Freak Factor, 2011
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
NEOPHOBIA in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 34 boards so far. 73 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 39, 28 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 147, 14 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 39, 28 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
NEOPHOBIA starts with N and ends with A. Sorted, its letters read ABEHINOOP - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. O appears more than once.
Words that mean much the same
Near-synonyms of NEOPHOBIA. Not interchangeable at the board - the grid decides that - but close in meaning.
Words that start NEOPHO
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 39
Could you have found NEOPHOBIA?
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 39 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER