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

Learning from the leaders However, capitalizing on the path already forged by market leaders is an area where outliers on the index can surge ahead. —Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 16 Apr. 2024

The Gotham Batmobile There’s no bigger outlier on this list than the Batmobile from Fox’s Gotham TV Series that ran from 2014 to 2019. —Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 16 Apr. 2024

Even though his volume is still low, Green’s accuracy as a 3-point shooter is an outlier in his career. —Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 10 Apr. 2024

Much of the concern about U.S. maternal death rates has been driven by its outlier status among industrialized countries and that its rates have continued to worsen as rates in many wealthy nations improved. —Robin Fields, ProPublica, 5 Apr. 2024

With its Ghost Town setting, Knott’s Berry Farm always felt like an outlier in Cedar Fair’s lineup. —Robert Niles, Orange County Register, 5 Apr. 2024

Though long considered to be the small, lonely outlier of the solar system, the International Astronomical Union, a nongovernmental organization, downgraded that categorization in 2006. —Li Cohen, CBS News, 1 Apr. 2024

In that regard, Brown, Dartmouth, and Yale look like outliers. —Ira Porter, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 Mar. 2024

That’s a big outlier in the set, but a welcome one. —Chris Willman, Variety, 3 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1606, in the meaning defined at sense 3b