The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
WISTFUL
Definition of WISTFUL
adjective
Full of longing or yearning.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Presumably from *whistful, from whist (“silent”) + -ful, based on older wistly. It is implausible that it derives from wishful, the required sound change being wishful → *wisful → wistful, which could not occur in Modern English, particularly not with wishful continuing in use. However, the sense of “longing” appears to be influenced by wishful, making wistful an ambiguous poetic word.
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.
WISTFUL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 59 boards so far. 289 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 102, 30 August 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 7, 28 May 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
WISTFUL starts with W and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read FILSTUW - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Words that start WISTFU
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 7
Could you have found WISTFUL?
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 7 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER