The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SMOTHER
Definition of SMOTHER
verb
To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of something or someone.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English smothren, smortheren, alteration (due to smother, smorther (“a suffocating vapour, dense smoke”, noun)) of Middle English smoren (“to smother”), from Old English smorian (“to smother, suffocate, choke”), from Proto-West Germanic *smorōn, from Proto-Germanic *smurōną (“to suffocate, strangle”), probably related to *smallijan (“to burn”) or Old English smoca (“smoke”). Cognate with Middle Low German smoren, smurten (“to choke, suffocate”), West Flemish smoren (“to smoke, reek”), Dutch smoren (“to suffocate, smother", also "to stew, simmer”), German schmoren (“to stew, simmer, braise”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
7th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
3.4%
of traced words share this origin (970)
branch · 22.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SMOTHER · 3 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Dutch, Middle Low German.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SMOTHER in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 20 boards so far. 29 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 23, 12 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 144, 11 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First found by a player on Day 23, 12 June 2026.
Built from these letters
SMOTHER starts with S and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read EHMORST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start SMOTHE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 23
Could you have found SMOTHER?
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 23 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER