The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
STRUGGLE
Definition of STRUGGLE
noun
An effortful attempt to escape something dangerous, usually out of fear for one's life or health.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English struglen, stroglen, strogelen, of obscure origin; perhaps from a variant of *strokelen, *stroukelen (> English stroll), from Middle Dutch struyckelen ("to stumble, trip, falter"; > Modern Dutch struikelen), the frequentative form of Old Dutch *strūkon (“to stumble”), from Proto-Germanic *strūkōną, *strūkēną (“to be stiff”), from Proto-Indo-European *strug-, *ster- (“to be stiff; to bristle, strut, stumble, fall”), Cognate with Scots strugil (“to struggle, grapple, contend”). Also related to Middle Low German strûkelen ("to stumble"; > Low German strükeln), Old High German strūhhēn, strūhhōn ("to stumble, trip, tumble, go astray"; > German strauchen, straucheln). Alternative etymology derives the base of struggle from Old Norse strúgr (“arrogance, pride, spitefulness, ill-will”) + -le (frequentative suffix), from Proto-Germanic *strūkaz (“stiff, rigid”), ultimately from the same Proto-Indo-European root above, which would make it cognate with dialectal Swedish strug (“contention, strife, discord”), Norwegian stru (“obstinate, unruly”), Danish struende (“reluctantly”), Scots strug (“difficulty, perplexity, a laborious task”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
4 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
14.2%
of traced words share this origin (12,153)
How it is built
Same root, STRUGGLE · 3 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Middle Low German, Norwegian, Old Norse, Scots, Swedish.
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
STRUGGLE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 173, 9 November 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 173, 9 November 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
STRUGGLE starts with S and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EGGLRSTU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. G appears more than once, including a double letter.
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 STRUGG
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found STRUGGLE?
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 173 - and most players walked straight past it.
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