The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
PAINFUL
Definition of PAINFUL
adjective
Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English paynful, peinful, peynful, paynefull, peynefull, equivalent to pain + -ful. Compare Danish pinefuld (“painful”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
PAINFUL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 15 boards so far. 27 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 24, 13 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 109, 6 September 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 24, 13 June 2026.
Built from these letters
PAINFUL starts with P and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AFILNPU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start PAINFU
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 24
Could you have found PAINFUL?
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 24 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER