The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SOFTWARE
Definition of SOFTWARE
noun
Encoded computer instructions, usually modifiable (unless stored in some form of unalterable memory such as ROM).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Computing sense from soft + -ware, by contrast with hardware (“the computer itself”). Coined by John Tukey in 1958. The earlier sense of software to mean tangible products with a soft texture may have fallen out of common usage before the computing sense was created.
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.
SOFTWARE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 9 boards so far. 12 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 26, 15 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 101, 29 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 11 days.
First found by a player on Day 26, 15 June 2026.
Built from these letters
SOFTWARE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read AEFORSTW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start SOFTWA
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 26
Could you have found SOFTWARE?
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 26 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER