SWEAR

Where it comes from

From Middle English sweren, swerien, from Old English swerian (“to swear, take an oath of office”), from Proto-West Germanic *swarjan, from Proto-Germanic *swarjaną (“to speak, swear”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to swear”). Cognate with West Frisian swarre (“to swear”), Saterland Frisian swera (“to swear”), Dutch zweren (“to swear, vow”), Low German swören (“to swear”), sweren, German schwören (“to swear”), Danish sværge, Swedish svära (“to swear”), Icelandic sverja (“to swear”), Russian свара (svara, “quarrel”). Also cognate to Albanian var (“to hang, consider, to depend from”) through Proto-Indo-European. The original sense in all Germanic languages is “to take an oath”. The sense “to use bad language” developed in Middle English and is based on the Christian prohibition against swearing in general (cf. Matthew 5:33-37) and invoking God’s name in particular (i.e. frequent swearing was considered similar to the use of obscene words).

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

SWEAR in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 9 boards so far. 11 players have found it across Outlier's history.

It first turned up on Day 18, 7 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 91, 19 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 11 days.

First found by a player on Day 18, 7 June 2026.

Built from these letters

SWEAR starts with S and ends with R. Sorted, its letters read AERSW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.

Same letters, different word

6 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.

Words that start SWEAR

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

Also seen on Day 18