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

Alpine County ranked the highest, though it is considered an outlier due to its small population and a tiny sample size. —Andrew Sheeler, Sacramento Bee, 3 June 2024

The government is examining the data, saying that the temperature is an outlier compared to measurements at other stations and that there could be an error in the sensor or due to local conditions. —Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 29 May 2024

Prairie State, Illinois’s largest emitter of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollution, is increasingly an outlier in a fast-changing sector of the U.S. economy. —Michael Hawthorne, Chicago Tribune, 26 May 2024

The Metroplex is an outlier on the model, as the rest of the state is predicted to see likely above normal temperatures for the month. —Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 25 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1606, in the meaning defined at sense 3b