The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
OUTBREAK
Definition of OUTBREAK
noun
An eruption; the sudden appearance of a rash, disease, etc.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English outbreken, oute-breken, from Old English ūtābrecan (“to break out”), equivalent to out- + break. Cognate with Saterland Frisian uutbreeke (“to break out, burst out”), West Frisian útbrekke (“to break out”), Dutch uitbreken (“to break out, burst out”), German ausbrechen (“to break out, erupt”). The noun is cognate with Saterland Frisian Uutbreek (“outbreak”), West Frisian útbrek (“outbreak”), Dutch uitbraak (“outbreak”), and German Ausbruch (“outbreak”), and is comparable to Danish udbrud (“outbreak”), Faroese and Icelandic útbrot (“rash”), Norwegian utbrudd (“outbreak”), and Swedish utbrott (“outbreak”).
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 (2,849)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, OUTBREAK · 3 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
OUTBREAK in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 7 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 51, 10 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 144, 11 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 11 days.
First found by a player on Day 51, 10 July 2026.
Also on
Built from these letters
OUTBREAK starts with O and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read ABEKORTU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
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 OUTBRE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 51
Could you have found OUTBREAK?
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 51 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER