outlandish

adjective out·land·ish \ ˌau̇t-ˈlan-dish \

|Updated on: 16 Aug 2018

Tip: Synonym Guide

Examples: outlandish in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of outlandish

1 : of or relating to another country : foreign

saw many outlandish animals at the zoo

2 a : strikingly out of the ordinary : bizarre

an outlandish costume

Her book is filled with outlandish characters.

spun some outlandish tales

b : exceeding proper or reasonable limits or standards

workers complain of outlandish hours
—Joan E. Rigdon

outlandish government specifications

3 : remote from civilization

no other young men foolish enough to offer to go to such an outlandish station
—Geog. Jour.

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outlandishly

adverb

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outlandishness

noun

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Examples of outlandish in a Sentence

She fills her books with outlandish characters.
The actress wore an outlandish dress to the awards ceremony.

Recent Examples of outlandish from the Web

That might not be as involved or exciting as some viewers' wildest dreams, but given Westworld's habit of manifesting human consciousness in increasingly outlandish ways, the simplicity is a relief.

— sandra upson, WIRED, "Westworld Recap, Season 2 Episode 9: The Many Lives of the Man in Black," 18 June 2018
Hideo Kojima and Norman Reedus are back to break our brains with an outlandish new trailer for Death Stranding.

— patricia hernandez, The Verge, "Death Stranding’s gruesome new trailer has babies, toenails, actual gameplay," 12 June 2018
Up next in Coyne's outlandish imagination: a record pressed with Cyrus' urine.

— abby jones, Billboard, "The Flaming Lips Want to Make Vinyl Albums Pressed With Miley Cyrus' Urine," 1 June 2018
Yet the series quickly takes on a life of its own, with an assortment of eccentric, almost uniformly unlikable characters, recalling that on TV, anyway, great wealth tends to breed a lot of high-class, outlandish problems.

— brian lowry, CNN, "'Succession' spins media dynasty into juicy HBO drama," 31 May 2018
Because like Trump, Kim has made a brand out of serial exaggeration and outlandish claims.

— chris cillizza, CNN, "Donald Trump's fake-it-until-you-make-it strategy on North Korea," 13 June 2018
To be honest, the expectations didn’t seem outlandish, given the win streak that ended the season and the way the team played against the Heat in the first round of the playoffs.

— bob ford, Philly.com, "Sixers' good isn't good enough against Celtics in NBA playoffs | Bob Ford," 10 May 2018
While some of the schemes are outlandish or even scary, a small though increasingly vocal band of experts argue the time for squeamishness has passed.

— Bloomberg.com, "+1 212 318 2000," 5 Feb. 2018
Predicting that the Los Angeles Lakers will draft or sign LiAngelo Ball this summer is perhaps the most outlandish claim LaVar Ball has ever made.

— nick schwartz, For The Win, "LaVar Ball says LaMelo and LiAngelo will play for the Lakers by 2020," 6 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'outlandish.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

In olden times, English speakers used the phrase outlandish man to refer to a foreigner - or, one who came from an outland, which originally meant "a foreign land." From here, outlandish broadened in usage from a word meaning "from another land" to one describing something unfamiliar or strange. Dress was a common early target for the adjective - Henry Fielding, in Tom Jones (1749), writes of a woman who was drest in one of your outlandish Garments. Nowadays, the word can be applied to anything that strikes us as out of the ordinary, as in the description of one man’s outlandish proposal to replace the aging Tappan Zee Bridge with a seven-mile tunnel, from the New York Times, September 16, 2001.

First Known Use of outlandish

before 12th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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outlandish Synonyms

Synonyms

exotic, fantastic (also fantastical), glamorous (also glamourous), marvelous (or marvellous), romantic, strange;

Antonyms

familiar, nonexotic, nonglamorous, unexotic, unglamorous, unromantic;

alien, foreign;

dark, distant, faraway, remote;

alluring, captivating, enchanting, fascinating, magical;

Synonym Discussion of outlandish

strange, singular, unique, peculiar, eccentric, erratic, odd, quaint, outlandish mean departing from what is ordinary, usual, or to be expected. strange stresses unfamiliarity and may apply to the foreign, the unnatural, the unaccountable.