The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SCARIFY
Definition of SCARIFY
verb
To remove thatch (build-up of organic matter on the soil) from a lawn, to dethatch.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Other senses
SCARIFY carries 4 further meanings.
In surgery, to scratch or make superficial incisions in: as, to scarify the gums.
To stir up and prepare for sowing or planting by means of a scarifier: as, to scarify the soil.
Figuratively, to harrow or rasp, as the feelings.
transitive verb
To scratch or cut the skin of; esp. (Med.), to make small incisions in, by means of a lancet or scarificator, so as to draw blood from the smaller vessels without opening a large vein.
Where it comes from
From French scarifier, from Late Latin scarificāre, from Latin scarifāre (“to scarify”), from Ancient Greek σκαριφᾶσθαι (skariphâsthai, “scratch”), from σκάριφος (skáriphos, “writing, drawing, sketching”). Unrelated to scar.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Ancient Greek
- Latin
- French
- English
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
12.4%
of traced words share this origin (10,655)
branch · 12.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SCARIFY · 5 relatives in the game
SCARIFY in a sentence
“I first learned about cassowaries when I was at the School for Field Studies SFS Center for Rainforest Studies in Fall of 1990 as a college student, and was fascinated that they're the only bird that can "scarify" certain rainforest seeds.”
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SCARIFY in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 63 boards so far. 243 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 27, 16 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 178, 14 November 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 27, 16 June 2026.
Built from these letters
SCARIFY starts with S and ends with Y. Sorted, its letters read ACFIRSY - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that mean much the same
Near-synonyms of SCARIFY. Not interchangeable at the board - the grid decides that - but close in meaning.
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 SCARIF
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 27
Could you have found SCARIFY?
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 27 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER