The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
NORTHERN
Definition of NORTHERN
adjective
Of, facing, situated in, or related to the north; northerly.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English northerne, from Old English norþerne, from Proto-West Germanic *norþrōnī, from Proto-Germanic *nurþrōnijaz. Cognate with Old High German nordrōni and Old Norse norrœnn. Morphologically north + -ern.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
6th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
4.8%
of traced words share this origin (4,101)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Its etymology also names Old Norse.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
NORTHERN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 154, 21 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 24 days.
First found by a player on Day 154, 21 October 2026.
Built from these letters
NORTHERN starts with N and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read EHNNORRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. N and R appear more than once.
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 NORTHE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found NORTHERN?
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 154 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER