The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ROOT
Definition of ROOT
noun
The part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors and supports the plant body, absorbs and stores water and nutrients, and in some plants is able to perform vegetative reproduction.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English rote, root, roote (“the underground part of a plant”), from late Old English rōt, from Old Norse rót (“root”), from Proto-Germanic *wrōts (“root”), from Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds (“root”); Doublet of wort, radish, and radix. Cognate with Scots ruit, rute (“root”), Danish rod (“root”), Faroese and Icelandic rót (“root”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish rot (“root”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.3%
of traced words share this origin (11,293)
How it is built
Same root, ROOT · 14 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, 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.
ROOT in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 14 boards so far. 16 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 9, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 145, 12 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 14 days.
First found by a player on Day 9, 29 May 2026.
Built from these letters
ROOT starts with R and ends with T. Sorted, its letters read OORT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. O appears more than once, including a double letter.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start ROOT
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found ROOT?
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 9 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER