The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SWAB
Definition of SWAB
noun
A small piece of soft, absorbent material, such as gauze, used to clean wounds, apply medicine, or take samples of body fluids. Often attached to a stick or wire to aid access.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Mid 17th century (in the sense 'mop for cleaning the decks'): back-formation from Middle English swabber (“sailor detailed to swab decks”), from Middle Dutch zwabber, from a Germanic base meaning 'splash' or 'sway', also found as nautical German Schwabber and Volga German Schwabber ("scrubber, mop, swab")
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.
SWAB in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 15 boards so far. 25 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 8, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 119, 16 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First found by a player on Day 8, 29 May 2026.
Built from these letters
SWAB starts with S and ends with B. Sorted, its letters read ABSW - 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 SWAB
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found SWAB?
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 8 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER