The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SCHWA
Definition of SCHWA
noun
An indeterminate central vowel sound as the "a" in "about", represented as /ə/ in IPA.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Other senses
SCHWA carries 4 further meanings.
noun
A mid-central neutral vowel, typically occurring in unstressed syllables, as the final vowel of English sofa.
noun
The symbol (ə) used to represent an unstressed neutral vowel and, in some systems of phonetic transcription, a stressed mid-central vowel, as in but.
noun
An indeterminate central vowel sound as the "a" in "about", represented as /ə/ in IPA and /@/ in SAMPA and X-SAMPA.
noun
The character ə, an upside-down, backwards, lower-case E
Where it comes from
Borrowed from German Schwa, from Hebrew שווא / שְׁוָא (shva, šəwā, “(mark indicating reduction or absence of a vowel)”), borrowed from Classical Syriac ܫ̈ܘܰܝܳܐ (š'wayyā, literally “even, equal”), in Syriac a term for a sign consisting of two vertical dots used to separate parts of a sentence. Doublet of shva.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
17th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.7%
of traced words share this origin (559)
branch · 2.1% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SCHWA · 4 relatives in the game
SCHWA in a sentence
“There's nae fuckin schwa in the Roman alfabet so ye cannae ever really be akyirit, ye ken?”
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SCHWA in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 69 boards so far. 171 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 19, 8 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 168, 4 November 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 19, 8 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SCHWA starts with S and ends with A. Sorted, its letters read ACHSW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
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 SCHWA
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 19
Could you have found SCHWA?
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 19 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER