The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
STIFLE
Definition of STIFLE
verb
To make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) to die by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
The verb is derived from Late Middle English stuflen (“to have difficulty breathing due to heat, stifle; to suffocate by drowning, drown”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain. Also found in Middle English forstyflyd (“stifled, choked”, past participle). Perhaps derived from Middle English stuffen (“to kill by suffocation; to stifle from heat; to extinguish, suppress (body heat, breath, humour, etc.); to deprive a plant of the conditions necessary for growth, choke”) + -len (frequentative suffix). Stuffen is derived from Old French estofer, estouffer (“to choke, strangle, suffocate; (figuratively) to inhibit, prevent”) [and other forms] (modern French étouffer), a variant of estoper, estuper (“to block, plug, stop up; to stiffen, thicken”) (modern French étouper (“to caulk”)), influenced by estofer (“to pad, stuff; to upholster”) (modern French étoffer). Estoper is derived from Vulgar Latin *stuppāre, from Latin stuppa (“coarse flax, tow”) (as a stuffing material; from Ancient Greek στύπη (stúpē), στύππη (stúppē) (compare στυππεῖον (stuppeîon)); probably from Pre-Greek) + -āre. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a derivation from Old Norse stífla (“to dam; to choke, stop up”) “appears untenable on the ground both of form and sense”. The noun is derived from the verb.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
16th
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
0.7%
of traced words share this origin (208)
branch · 22.3% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, STIFLE · 3 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.
STIFLE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 33 boards so far. 117 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 24, 13 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 142, 9 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First found by a player on Day 24, 13 June 2026.
Built from these letters
STIFLE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EFILST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
5 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start STIFLE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 24
Could you have found STIFLE?
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 24 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER