The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SMEARING
Definition of SMEARING
verb
present participle and gerund of smear
verb
To spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
SMEARING inherits its ancestry from its root, SMEAR.
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
7th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.3%
of traced words share this origin (990)
branch · 22.3% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SMEAR · 4 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SMEARING in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 18 boards so far. 22 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 24, 13 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 148, 15 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First found by a player on Day 24, 13 June 2026.
Built from these letters
SMEARING starts with S and ends with G. Sorted, its letters read AEGIMNRS - 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 SMEARI
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 24
Could you have found SMEARING?
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