outlier

American  

[out-lahy-er] / ˈaʊtˌlaɪ ər /

noun

• outliers
  plural

1. something that lies outside the main body or group that it is a part of, such as a cow far from the rest of the herd, or a distant island belonging to a cluster of islands.

   The small factory was an outlier, and unproductive, so the corporation sold it off to private owners who were able to make it profitable.

2. someone who stands apart from other members of a group, such as by differing behavior, beliefs, or religious practices.

   There are a few scientists who are outliers in their views on climate change.

   Synonyms:

   outsider, heretic, iconoclast, dissenter, dissident, bohemian, eccentric, original, maverick, nonconformist

3. Statistics.

   1. an observation that is well outside of the expected range of values in a study or experiment, and which is often discarded from the data set.

      Experience with a variety of data-reduction problems has led to several strategies for dealing with outliers in data sets.

   2. a person whose abilities, achievements, etc., lie outside the range of statistical probability.

4. Geology. a part of a formation left detached through the removal of surrounding parts by erosion.

5. Obsolete. a person residing outside the place of their business, duty, etc.

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outlier British  

/ ˈaʊtˌlaɪə /

noun

1. an outcrop of rocks that is entirely surrounded by older rocks

2. a person, thing, or part situated away from a main or related body

3. a person who lives away from his place of work, duty, etc

4. statistics a point in a sample widely separated from the main cluster of points in the sample See scatter diagram

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• outliers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of outlier

First recorded in 1600–10; out- + lier

Explanation

In statistics an outlier is a piece of data that is far from the rest; think of a graph with dots, where most dots are clustered together in the middle, but one dot, the outlier, is at the top. Think of an outlier as an outsider. An outlier refers to anything that strays from, or isn’t part of, the norm. If you like to sleep in a tent in the backyard while your neighbors and family sleep in their beds, you’re probably an outlier. You may also be an outlier if you have to travel far to your job. In geology, rock that is separated from another rock formation is called an outlier.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

outlier outliers

She's something of an outlier with this view.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

That Canadian smoke wasn’t pretty, but it was an outlier.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

So many states had repealed so many firearm regulations that the District of Columbia’s stringent handgun ban looked like a true outlier.

From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026

Perhaps the biggest outlier was Talarico’s lead among non-college-educated voters, who favored the Democrat by nine percentage points — 45% to 36%.

From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026

The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

The Apple TV show is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which most of humanity has been infected with an alien virus creating a peaceful hive mind, with only 13 outliers immune.

From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026

Bloom says he has used a variety of approaches including accounting for distance, economic gravity, the size of the economy and selectively omitting potential outliers.

From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026

“Barring a miracle, the 2020s will prove to be what their ominous opening foreshadowed: a lost decade-not just for a couple of outliers, but for dozens of developing economies,” Gill said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

Shooting in New York is a very interesting experience because you have all these outliers just watching and gawking.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026

My father's family, meanwhile, sprawled across Chicago’s broader South Side and included an array of great-aunts and third cousins, plus a few stray outliers whose blood connection remained cloudy.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Related Words

• aberration
• deviation
• eccentricity
• exception
• oddity