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SMALL
Definition of SMALL
adjective
Not large or big; insignificant; few in number.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English smal, smale, small, smalle, smel, smæl, from Old English smæl (“narrow, slim; slender; fine; small; quiet”), from Proto-West Germanic *smal, from Proto-Germanic *smalaz (“small”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mal- (“small; little”). Cognate with Scots smaw (“small; minor”), Yola smaale, small (“small”), North Frisian smaal, smeel, smääl (“narrow”), Saterland Frisian smäl (“narrow”), West Frisian smel (“narrow”), Alemannic German schmaal (“narrow”), Bavarian schmoi (“narrow; slender”), Dutch smal (“narrow; small”), German schmal (“narrow; slender”), Low German small (“narrow; slender, small”), Luxembourgish schmuel (“narrow”), Vilamovian śmoł, šmoł (“narrow”), Yiddish שמאָל (shmol, “narrow”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish smal (“narrow; slim”), Gothic 𐍃𐌼𐌰𐌻𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃 (smalists, “smallest”); also Latin malus (“bad, distressing, nasty; evil, mischievous, wicked; destructive, hurtful, noxious; abusive, hostile, unkind”), Belarusian малы́ (malý, “small”), Bulgarian and Macedonian мал (mal, “small; minor”), Czech and Slovak malý (“small”), Polish mały (“small; little; humble; short”), Russian ма́лый (mályj, “small; short”), Serbo-Croatian ма̑л, mȃl (“small”), Ukrainian мали́й (malýj, “small”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (11,866)
How it is built
Same root, SMALL · 6 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Czech, Danish, Dutch, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Scots and 2 more.
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.
SMALL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 167, 3 November 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 167, 3 November 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SMALL starts with S and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read ALLMS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. L 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 SMALL
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found SMALL?
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 167 - and most players walked straight past it.
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