The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SMUG
Definition of SMUG
adjective
Irritatingly pleased with oneself; offensively self-complacent, self-satisfied.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Originally "spruce, neat," from Low German smuk (“pretty”), from Middle Low German smuk (“lithe, delicate, neat, trim”), although the g of the English word is not easily explained. The ultimate source should be Proto-West Germanic *smeugan (“to crawl, creep”). From the Low German derived also North Frisian smok, Danish smuk and Swedish smukk (now obsolete or dialectal). Compare also Middle High German gesmuc (“ornament”) and smücken (“to dress, to adorn”), both ultimately from smiegen (“to press to, insert, wrap, to nestle”), hence German schmiegen, Schmuck and schmücken. The adjective schmuck, however, was borrowed from Low German. See smock for more.
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.
SMUG in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 6 boards so far. 13 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 9, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 103, 31 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 6 days.
First found by a player on Day 9, 29 May 2026.
Built from these letters
SMUG starts with S and ends with G. Sorted, its letters read GMSU - 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 SMUG
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 9
Could you have found SMUG?
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 9 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER