The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SMOLDER
Definition of SMOLDER
verb
To burn slowly, giving off smoke but with little to no flame.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English smolderen (“to suffocate, stifle”), from Middle English smolder (“smoke, smoky vapour”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *smolōn (“to burn, glow, fume, smoulder”). Related to Proto-West Germanic *smallijan (> English smell).
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.
SMOLDER in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 19 boards so far. 28 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 6, 27 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 99, 27 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 6, 27 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SMOLDER starts with S and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read DELMORS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start SMOLDE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 6
Could you have found SMOLDER?
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 6 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER