The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
PATERNAL
Definition of PATERNAL
adjective
Of or pertaining to one's father, his genes, his relatives, or his side of a family.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Old French paternal (“of a father”) (12th c.), from Vulgar Latin paternālis (“paternal”), from Latin paternus (“of or pertaining to a father, paternal”), from pater (“father”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Latin
- Old French
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
33%
of traced words share this origin (9,764)
branch · 33% of traced words
How it is built
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
PATERNAL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 27 boards so far. 74 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 28, 17 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 149, 16 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 28, 17 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
PATERNAL starts with P and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AAELNPRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. A appears more than once.
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 PATERN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 28
Could you have found PATERNAL?
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 28 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER