The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
STRAIN
Definition of STRAIN
noun
Race; lineage, pedigree.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English streen, strene, streon, istreon (“race, stock, generation”), from Old English strēon, ġestrēon (“gain, wealth”), from Proto-West Germanic *streun, from Proto-Germanic *streuną (“heap, treasure, profit, gain”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, strew”) (cognate with Old Saxon gistriuni, Old High German gistriuni (“gain, property, wealth, business”), Latin strues (“heap”)). Confused in Middle English with the related noun strend, strynd, strund, from Old English strȳnd (“race; stock”), from strēonan, strȳnan (“to beget; acquire”). Related also to Dutch struinen (“to prowl, root about, rout”).
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.
STRAIN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 10 boards so far. 11 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 27, 16 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 92, 20 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 3 days.
First found by a player on Day 27, 16 June 2026.
Built from these letters
STRAIN starts with S and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read AINRST - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
3 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start STRAIN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found STRAIN?
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 27 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER