The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SMUDGE
Definition of SMUDGE
noun
A blemish or smear, especially a dark or sooty one.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Derived from the verb (see below). Doublet of smutch.
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.
SMUDGE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 18 boards so far. 33 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 6, 27 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 106, 3 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.
First found by a player on Day 16, 5 June 2026.
Built from these letters
SMUDGE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read DEGMSU - 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 SMUDGE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 6
Could you have found SMUDGE?
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