The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
NIGHTMARE
Definition of NIGHTMARE
noun
A very unpleasant or frightening dream.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English nyghtmare, from Old English *nihtmare, equivalent to night + mare (“evil spirit believed to afflict a sleeping person”). Cognate with Scots nichtmare and nichtmeer, Dutch nachtmerrie, Middle Low German nachtmār, German Nachtmahr.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Old English
- Middle English
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
7th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.7%
of traced words share this origin (2,864)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, NIGHTMARE · 2 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Dutch, Middle Low German, Scots.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
NIGHTMARE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 27 boards so far. 44 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 10, 30 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 158, 25 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 32, 21 June 2026.
Built from these letters
NIGHTMARE starts with N and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read AEGHIMNRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start NIGHTM
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 10
Could you have found NIGHTMARE?
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