The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
RETAINS
Definition of RETAINS
verb
third-person singular simple present indicative of retain
verb
Often followed by from: to hold back (someone or something); to check, to prevent, to restrain, to stop. To hold back (a pupil) instead of allowing them to advance to the next class or year; to keep back. Of a thing: to hold or keep (something) inside it; to contain.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
RETAINS inherits its ancestry from its root, RETAIN.
Line of descent
6 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
8.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,622)
How it is built
Same root, RETAIN · 2 relatives in the game
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.
RETAINS in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 10 boards so far. 11 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 26, 15 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 142, 9 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First found by a player on Day 26, 15 June 2026.
Built from these letters
RETAINS starts with R and ends with S. Sorted, its letters read AEINRST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
10 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start RETAIN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 26
Could you have found RETAINS?
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 26 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER