The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
TERNE
Definition of TERNE
adjective
Colourless, drab, dull.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Borrowed from French terne, from Middle French, from Old French terne (“dim, dull”), from Frankish *darnī (“concealed, hidden; secret”); further etymology unknown, perhaps related to Proto-West Germanic *derk (“dark; dirty”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerg- (“to darken, dim”). Doublet of dern.
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
5 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
9%
of traced words share this origin (2,616)
How it is built
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.
TERNE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 8 boards so far.
It first turned up on Day 49, 8 July 2026. The most recent board was Day 147, 14 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 49, 8 July 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
TERNE starts with T and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EENRT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. E appears more than once.
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 TERNE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 49
Could you have found TERNE?
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 49 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER