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PHLEGM
Definition of PHLEGM
noun
One of the four humors making up the body in ancient and mediaeval medicine; said to be cold and moist, and often identified with mucus.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English flewme, fleume, fleme, from Old French fleume, Middle French flemme (French flegme), and their source, Latin phlegma, from Ancient Greek φλέγμα (phlégma, “flame; inflammation; clammy humor in the body”), from φλέγειν (phlégein, “to burn”). Possible burning sensation when coughing up phlegm. Compare phlox, flagrant, flame, bleak (adjective), fulminate. Spelling later altered to resemble the word's Latin and Greek roots. The regularly developed form /fliːm/ has been displaced by a pronunciation /flɛm/ of uncertain provenance. It may be inherited, though some kind of learned or spelling pronunciation or influence from phlegmatic is also conceivable.
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.
PHLEGM in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 56 boards so far. 463 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 95, 23 August 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
PHLEGM starts with P and ends with M. Sorted, its letters read EGHLMP - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start PHLEGM
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found PHLEGM?
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 7 - and most players walked straight past it.
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