The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ZEUGMA
Definition of ZEUGMA
noun
The act of using a word, particularly an adjective or verb, to apply to more than one noun when its sense is appropriate to only one.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Other senses
ZEUGMA carries 4 further meanings.
noun
Syllepsis.
noun
A construction in which one word or phrase is understood to fill a parallel syntactic role in two or more clauses or phrases, as with the verb was in She was upstairs, and her husband downstairs.
noun
A figure in grammar in which two nouns are joined to a verb suitable to only one of them, but suggesting another verb suitable to the other noun; or in which an adjective is similarly used with two nouns.
noun
[capitalized] [NL.] In entomology, a genus of hemipterous insects.
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Ancient Greek ζεῦγμα (zeûgma, “yoking; a bond, a band”), from ζεύγνυμι (zeúgnumi, “to yoke; to join”), from ζεῦγος (zeûgos, “a yoke”).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Ancient Greek
- English
One recorded step before English.
Deepest traced root
2nd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
12.6%
of traced words share this origin (3,666)
branch · 12.6% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, ZEUGMA · 1 relative in the game
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
ZEUGMA in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 8 boards so far. 93 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 21, 10 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 145, 12 October 2026. It was on the latest finished board.
First ever to find it
on Day 21, 10 June 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
ZEUGMA starts with Z and ends with A. Sorted, its letters read AEGMUZ - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram. It uses Z - among the least common letters in written English.
Also seen on Day 21
Could you have found ZEUGMA?
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 21 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER