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

There are two ways to look at the Kobold investment (and the Earth AI round): a reflection of fresh investor enthusiasm for mining technologies — or an outlier. —Alan Neuhauser, Axios, 27 Jan. 2025

President Trump’s repudiation of renewable-energy technologies stands to make the United States an outlier in the world. —Somini Sengupta, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2025

Nick Foles, Mark Sanchez and Colin Kaepernick reside in the upper left as outliers whose postseason production on a limited number of starts (six each) far exceeded their modest regular-season performances over many more games. —Mike Sando, The Athletic, 20 Jan. 2025

One-season superstars like Cam Newton, who led Auburn to the 2010 national title in his only season there, were the outliers. —Andrew Greif, NBC News, 20 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1606, in the meaning defined at sense 3b