The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
TOWN
Definition of TOWN
noun
A settlement; an area with residential districts, shops and amenities, and its own local government; especially one larger than a village and smaller than a city, historically enclosed by a fence or walls, with total populations ranging from several hundred to more than a hundred thousand (as of the early 21st century)
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English toun, from Old English tūn, from Proto-West Germanic *tūn, from Proto-Germanic *tūną, borrowed from Proto-Celtic *dūnom (“stronghold, rampart”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *duh₂-nós (“lasting, durable”), from *dewh₂- (“to last”) + *-nós. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tuun (“garden”), West Frisian tún (“enclosure, garden”), Dutch tuin (“garden”), German Low German Tuun (“fence”), German Zaun (“fence”), Danish tun, Swedish tun and Norwegian Nynorsk tun (“yard”); also archaic Welsh din (“hill”), Irish dún (“fortress”). Doublet of dun. See also -ton and tine (“to enclose”).
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 (11,575)
How it is built
Same root, TOWN · 15 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Irish, Norwegian, Swedish, Welsh.
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.
TOWN in OUTLIER
It has fitted 1 board so far. 21 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 111, 8 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 53 days.
First found by a player on Day 10, 30 May 2026.
Built from these letters
TOWN starts with T and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read NOTW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start TOWN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found TOWN?
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 111 - and most players walked straight past it.
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