The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
RIFE
Definition of RIFE
adjective
Widespread, common, prevalent, current (mainly of unpleasant or harmful things).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English rife, from Old English rīfe, rȳfe (“rife, abundant, frequent”), from Proto-West Germanic *rīb, from Proto-Germanic *rībaz (“generous”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to tear (off), rip”). Cognate with West Frisian rju (“rife, much”), Dutch rijf (“abundant, copious”), Low German rive (“abundant, munificent”), Icelandic rífur (“rife, munificent”), Faroese ríviligur (“plentiful, abundant”), Faroese rívan (“abundantly”), Icelandic reifa (“to bestow”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
8.9%
of traced words share this origin (2,656)
How it is built
Its etymology also names Dutch, Icelandic.
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.
RIFE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 55 boards so far. 217 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 153, 20 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
RIFE starts with R and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EFIR - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
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 RIFE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found RIFE?
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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