The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
REFER
Definition of REFER
verb
To direct the attention of (someone toward something).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English referren, from Old French referer, from Latin referre. The noun (used in journalism) is from the verb. Doublet of relate. See also infer, collate and confer, delate and defer, as well as prelate and prefer among others.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
30.7%
of traced words share this origin (25,664)
branch · 30.7% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, REF · 5 relatives in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
REFER in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 153, 20 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 16 days.
Built from these letters
REFER starts with R and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read EEFRR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. R and E appear more than once. It reads the same backwards - a palindrome, and there are not many in the dictionary this game plays from.
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 REFER
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found REFER?
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 153 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER