The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
PAIN
Definition of PAIN
noun
An ache or bodily suffering, or an instance of this; an unpleasant sensation, resulting from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; hurt.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English peyne, payne, from Old French and Anglo-Norman peine, paine, from Latin poena (“punishment, pain”), from Ancient Greek ποινή (poinḗ, “bloodmoney, weregild, fine, price paid, penalty”), from Proto-Hellenic *kʷoinā́, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷoynéh₂ (“payment”) (whence also Proto-Slavic *cěnà (“price”)). Doublet of peine. Compare Danish pine, Norwegian Bokmål pine, German Pein, Dutch pijn, Afrikaans pyn. See also pine (the verb). Partly displaced native Old English sār (whence Modern English sore).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
7 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
47th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.1%
of traced words share this origin (16)
branch · 0.7% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, PAIN · 2 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Old English.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
PAIN in OUTLIER
It has fitted 57 boards so far. 32 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 42, 1 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 133, 30 September 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 24, 13 June 2026.
Built from these letters
PAIN starts with P and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read AINP - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start PAIN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 42
Could you have found PAIN?
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 42 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER