outer

American  

[ou-ter] / ˈaʊ tər /

adjective

1. situated on or toward the outside; external; exterior.

   outer garments; an outer wall.

2. situated farther out or farther from the center.

   the outer reaches of space.

3. of or relating to the external world.

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outer British  

/ ˈaʊtə /

adjective

1. being or located on the outside; external

2. further from the middle or central part

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noun

1. archery

   1. the white outermost ring on a target

   2. a shot that hits this ring

2. the unsheltered part of the spectator area at a sports ground

3. informal excluded or neglected

Other Word Forms

• outerness noun

Etymology

Origin of outer

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; out, -er ⁴

Example Sentences

Due to all the stress, she shed a lot of the outer scales of her shell, revealing soft ones underneath.

From Los Angeles Times

He writes about Boeing, Lockheed Martin and a wide range of startups and established companies that field their technology from land and sea to outer space.

From The Wall Street Journal

He checked the workstations in the outer lab until he finally found a couple of memory sticks.

From Literature

At the center of the Helix Nebula is a white dwarf, the exposed core left behind after the star shed its outer layers.

From Science Daily

Combined with the long duration of the dimming, this confirms that the object blocking the star is a disk surrounding a secondary companion, orbiting in the outer regions of the system.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• exterior
• outlying