The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
PERFUNCTORY
Definition of PERFUNCTORY
adjective
Done only or merely to conform to a minimal standard or to fulfill a protocol or presumptive duty.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Late Latin perfunctōrius (“careless, negligent”), from the past participial stem of perfungor, perfunct- (“perform, carry through”), from per- + fungor.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Latin
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
30.7%
of traced words share this origin (24,117)
branch · 30.7% 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.
PERFUNCTORY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far. 13 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 140, 7 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 19 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 140, 7 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
PERFUNCTORY starts with P and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read CEFNOPRRTUY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. R appears more than once.
Words that start PERFUNC
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found PERFUNCTORY?
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 140 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER