The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ZONING
Definition of ZONING
verb
present participle and gerund of zone
noun
Each of the five regions of the earth's surface into which it was divided by climatic differences, namely the torrid zone (between the tropics), two temperate zones (between the tropics and the polar circles), and two frigid zones (within the polar circles).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Word DNA
ZONING inherits its ancestry from its root, ZONE.
Line of descent
- Ancient Greek
- Latin
- English
2 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 59 source languages in OUTLIER
12.4%
of traced words share this origin (10,357)
branch · 12.4% of traced words
How it is built
Same root, ZONE · 9 relatives 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.
ZONING in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 145, 12 October 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 24 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 145, 12 October 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
ZONING starts with Z and ends with G. Sorted, its letters read GINNOZ - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. N appears more than once. It uses Z - among the least common letters in written English.
Could you have found ZONING?
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 145 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER