The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
READ
Definition of READ
verb
To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English reden, from Old English rǣdan (“to counsel, advise, consult; interpret, read”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādan, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną (“advise, counsel”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₁dʰ- (“to arrange”). Cognate with Scots rede, red (“to advise, counsel, decipher, read”), Saterland Frisian räide (“to advise, counsel”), West Frisian riede (“to advise, counsel”), Dutch raden (“to advise; guess”), German raten (“to advise; guess”), Danish råde (“to advise”), Swedish råda (“to advise, counsel”), Persian رده (rade, “to order, to arrange, class”). In West Germanic the verb had a sense “interpret”, which developed further into “interpret letters” in English and “interpret by intuition, guess” on the continent. Compare rede.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.4%
of traced words share this origin (11,223)
How it is built
Same root, READ · 9 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Persian, Scots, Swedish.
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
READ in OUTLIER
It has fitted 24 boards so far. 31 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 67, 26 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 155, 22 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.
First found by a player on Day 32, 21 June 2026.
Built from these letters
READ starts with R and ends with D. Sorted, its letters read ADER - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
5 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start READ
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found READ?
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 67 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER