The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.

ROTTEN

/ˈɹɒtn̩/6 letters

Definition of ROTTEN

adjective

Of perishable items, overridden with bacteria and other infectious agents.

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Where it comes from

From Middle English roten, from Old Norse rotinn (“decayed, rotten”), past participle of an unrecorded verb related to Old Norse rotna (“to rot”) and Old English rotian (“to rot”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rutāną (“to rot”). See rot. By surface analysis, rot + -en (past participle).

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

Rarity score
Withheld
Revealed only in play
Tier
Withheld
Find it yourself

OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.

ROTTEN in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 1 board so far.

Day 1Day 106
Its one board, across 106 finished boards · taller bars are busier boards
1
Boards found on
106
First board
0
Days since seen

It first turned up on Day 106, 3 September 2026. It was on the latest finished board.

First found by a player on Day 106, 3 September 2026.

Built from these letters

ROTTEN
6
Letters
2
Vowels
4
Consonants
5
Different letters
2
Longest consonant run
1
Longest vowel run

ROTTEN starts with R and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read ENORTT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. T appears more than once, including a double letter.

Same letters, different word

One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.

Words that start ROTTEN

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

ROTTENSROTTENERROTTENLYROTTENESTROTTENNESSROTTENSTONEROTTENNESSESROTTENSTONES

Could you have found ROTTEN?

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 106 - and most players walked straight past it.

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The OUTLIER card for ROTTENDownload image