The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
SWAMP
Definition of SWAMP
noun
An area of wet (water-saturated), spongy (soft) land, often with trees, generally a rich ecosystem for certain plants and animals but ill-suited for many agricultural purposes.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Early attestations (starting in 1624) are from North America, but the term was probably in local use in Britain earlier. The etymology is not entirely certain; it is probably a fusion of Middle English swam (“swamp, muddy pool, bog, marsh”, also “fungus, mushroom”) — from Old English swamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), from Proto-West Germanic *swamm, from Proto-Germanic *swambaz, *swammaz — and Middle English sompe (“marsh, morass”), from either Middle Dutch somp, sump (“marsh, swamp”) or Middle Low German sump (“marsh, swamp”) (from Old Saxon *sump (“swamp, marsh”)), both from Proto-West Germanic *sump, from Proto-Germanic *sumpaz. *Swambaz, *swammaz and *sumpaz are likely related to each other, but it is unclear whether they are of Indo-European origin or are substrate words or wanderworts. The word has alternatively been suggested to be a borrowing from Dutch zwamp (“swamp, marsh, fen”). Other cognates include Middle Low German swamp (“sponge, mushroom”), Dutch zomp (“swamp, lake, marshy place”), German Low German Sump (“swamp, bog, marsh”), German Sumpf (“swamp”), Swedish sump (“swamp”). Related also to Dutch zwam (“fungus, punk, tinder”), German Schwamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), Swedish svamp (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), Icelandic svampur, sveppur (“fungus”), Gothic 𐍃𐍅𐌿𐌼𐍃𐌻 (swumsl, “a ditch”). Related to sump, swim.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
6 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
28th
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
0.3%
of traced words share this origin (268)
branch · 22.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, SWAMP · 9 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Icelandic.
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
SWAMP in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 26 boards so far. 29 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 8, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 144, 11 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 21 days.
First found by a player on Day 8, 29 May 2026.
Built from these letters
SWAMP starts with S and ends with P. Sorted, its letters read AMPSW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start SWAMP
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 8
Could you have found SWAMP?
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