The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
NUMBER
Definition of NUMBER
noun
Quantity of countable things.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English number, nombre, numbre, noumbre, from Anglo-Norman noumbre, Old French nombre, from Latin numerus (“number”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to distribute, to give, to take”). Compare Saterland Frisian Nummer, Nuumer, West Frisian nûmer, Dutch nummer (“number”), German Nummer (“number”), Danish nummer (“number”), Swedish nummer (“number”), Icelandic númer (“number”). Displaced Middle English ȝetæl and rime; more at tell, tale and rhyme. Distantly related (via Proto-Indo-European) to obsolete English nim (“to take, seize”) and its Germanic cognates (e.g. German nehmen), hence also to numb.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.3%
of traced words share this origin (11,293)
How it is built
Same root, NUMB · 7 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, German, Icelandic, Swedish.
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.
NUMBER in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 18 boards so far. 50 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 27, 16 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 158, 25 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 27, 16 June 2026.
Built from these letters
NUMBER starts with N and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read BEMNRU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start NUMBER
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 27
Could you have found NUMBER?
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 27 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER