outlier

noun

out·​li·​er ˈau̇t-ˌlī(-ə)r 

1

: a person whose residence and place of business are at a distance

His house was a place of refuge for outliers.

2

: something (such as a geologic feature) that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body

The island is an outlier on the southeast side of the archipelago.

3

a

: a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample

Values that are outliers give disproportionate weight to larger over smaller values.

b

: a person or thing that is atypical within a particular group, class, or category

She was an outlier when she launched her cruelty-free, sustainably minded brand in 2001, but has found the centre of gravity shifting in her direction.

—Jess Cartner-Morley

Among the world's wealthy nations, the United States is an outlier on this issue: Americans have the lowest national minimum wage, relative to the median wage, of any of the wealthy nations represented in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

—Christopher Ingraham

Examples of outlier in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Boston's 32-point Game 1 win stands as the outlier so far of two otherwise fantastic playoff games. —CBS News, 25 Apr. 2026

Oversight should focus on providers that exhibit clear signs of risk, with better use of data to identify outliers and more consistent, targeted audits. —Tom Koutsoumpas, Oc Register, 24 Apr. 2026

There are a few stark outliers. —Sean Nevin, NBC news, 24 Apr. 2026

The songs are contextualized a little and, among other gentle pleasures, Kole and Galante explore a little of the structural complexity of Bacharach’s constantly shape-shifting music, an outlier among pop compositions and indicative of the composer’s technical genius. —Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 24 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1606, in the meaning defined at sense 3b