The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SMEAR
Definition of SMEAR
verb
To spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English smeren, smerien, from Old English smerian, smyrian, smierwan (“to anoint or rub with grease, oil, etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *smirwijan, from Proto-Germanic *smirwijaną. Doublet of schmear. Cognate with Saterland Frisian smeere, Dutch smeren (“to smear, lubricate”), Low German smeren, German schmieren (“to smear, lubricate”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål smøre (“to lubricate”), Norwegian Nynorsk smørja (“to lubricate”), Swedish smörja (“to grease”), Faroese and Icelandic smyrja.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SMEAR in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 9 boards so far. 14 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 24, 13 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 96, 24 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 24, 13 June 2026.
Built from these letters
SMEAR starts with S and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read AEMRS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
4 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start SMEAR
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 24
Could you have found SMEAR?
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 24 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER