The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SERIF
Definition of SERIF
noun
A short line added to the end of a stroke in traditional typefaces, such as Times New Roman.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From earlier ceriph, seriph, surryph, of obscure derivation. There are two (not directly interrelated) candidates for a possible Dutch origin: 1.) the noun schreef (“stroke”, now also “serif” as a semantic loan), related with schrapen (“to scrape”); and 2.) the verb schrafferen (“to provide with horizontal lines, to shade”), from Italian sgraffiare. For the latter, compare German Schraffe (“serif”), although this again may be a semantic loan based on the English word rather than original to it. Alternatively, from Late Latin cerificus (“waxen”), from Latin cera (“wax”), after the ruled lines used in writing on wax tablets.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
1st
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
33.1%
of traced words share this origin (9,860)
branch · 33.1% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SERIF · 3 relatives in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SERIF in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 62 boards so far. 104 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 8, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 151, 18 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 31, 20 June 2026.
Built from these letters
SERIF starts with S and ends with F. Sorted, its letters read EFIRS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
5 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start SERIF
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 8
Could you have found SERIF?
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 8 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER