The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
STEPBAIRN
Definition of STEPBAIRN
noun
A stepchild.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English stepbarn (“orphan”), from Old English stēopbearn (“orphan”), from Proto-West Germanic *steupabarn, from Proto-Germanic *steupabarną (“stepchild”), equivalent to step- + bairn. Cognate with Old High German stiofbarn (“stepchild”), Norwegian stebarn (“stepchild”) Danish stedbarn (“stepchild”), Swedish styvbarn (“stepchild”), Icelandic stjúpbarn (“stepchild”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
3 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
7th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
3.6%
of traced words share this origin (917)
branch · 22.8% of traced words
How it is built
Its etymology also names Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
STEPBAIRN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 128, 25 September 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 128, 25 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
STEPBAIRN starts with S and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read ABEINPRST - 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 STEPBA
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found STEPBAIRN?
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 128 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER