The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SOFTENING
Definition of SOFTENING
verb
present participle and gerund of soften
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English softenynge, softynand, equivalent to soften + -ing.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Middle English
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
4th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
7.6%
of traced words share this origin (2,217)
branch · 22.3% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SOFTEN · 4 relatives in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SOFTENING in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 132, 29 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 14 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 132, 29 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
SOFTENING starts with S and ends with G. Sorted, its letters read EFGINNOST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. N appears more than once.
Words that start SOFTEN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found SOFTENING?
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 132 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER