The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
YAWN
Definition of YAWN
verb
To open the mouth widely and take a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired or bored, and sometimes accompanied by pandiculation.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
Partly from Middle English yanen, yonen, yenen (“to yawn”), from Old English ġeonian, ġinian (“to yawn, gape”), from Proto-West Germanic *ginōn, from Proto-Germanic *ginōną (“to yawn”); and partly from Middle English gonen (“to gape, yawn”), from Old English gānian (“to yawn, gape”), from Proto-West Germanic *gainōn, from Proto-Germanic *gainōną (“to yawn, gape”); both from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰi-, *ǵʰeyh₁- (“to yawn, gape”). Cognate with North Frisian jåne (“to yawn”), Saterland Frisian jaanje, joanje (“to yawn”), Middle Dutch genen, ghenen (“to yawn”), German Low German jahnen (“to yawn”), German gähnen (“to yawn, gape”), dialectal Swedish gana (“to gape, gawk”), dialectal Norwegian gina (“to gape”). Compare also Old Church Slavonic зѣѭ (zějǫ) (Russian зи́нуть (zínutʹ), зия́ть (zijátʹ)), Greek χαίνω (khaínō)), Latin hiō, Tocharian A śew, Tocharian B kāy-, Lithuanian žioti, Sanskrit जेह् (jeh)
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
14.3%
of traced words share this origin (11,343)
How it is built
Same root, YAWN · 11 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Latin, Middle Dutch, Norwegian, Russian, Sanskrit, Swedish.
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.
YAWN in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 31 boards so far. 64 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 10, 30 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 149, 16 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 12 days.
First found by a player on Day 10, 30 May 2026.
Built from these letters
YAWN starts with Y and ends with N. Sorted, its letters read ANWY - 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 YAWN
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Also seen on Day 10
Could you have found YAWN?
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 10 - and most players walked straight past it.
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