The rare daily word game sweeping the globe. Find what's hidden in plain sight.
ZYGOTENE
Definition of ZYGOTENE
noun
The intimate pairing of homologous chromosomes during the synaptic stage of meiosis
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From French zygotène, corresponding to zygo- (“union, zygosis”, from Ancient Greek ζυγόν (zugón, “junction, yoke”)) + -tene (“filament”, from ταινία (tainía, “band, fillet”)), equivalent to zygote + -tene. Coined by Victor Grégoire in 1907 and in English by Edmund B. Wilson in 1912.
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.
ZYGOTENE in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far. 10 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 107, 4 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 4 days.
First ever to find it
on Day 107, 4 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
ZYGOTENE starts with Z and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read EEGNOTYZ - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. E appears more than once. It uses Z - among the least common letters in written English.
Words that start ZYGOTE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found ZYGOTENE?
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 107 - and most players walked straight past it.
Play today's OUTLIER