outlier
noun
out·li·er
| \ ˈau̇t-ˌlī(-ə)r
\
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Definition of outlier
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 geological 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.
3a
: 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
For years, however, Meyerhoff was regarded as an outlier. — Jeffrey Mervis, Science | AAAS, "A vaunted program for boosting the diversity of U.S. academic scientists is starting to spread," 24 July 2019 While tech disruptors have become a common phenomenon, they are still largely seen as outliers. — Richard Bailey, Quartz at Work, "Disruption fatigue demands a new approach to being disruptive," 11 July 2019 But 2018 was an all-time outlier for the franchise, a season with only scattered bumps, few bruises, and little drama. — Peter Abraham, BostonGlobe.com, "Red Sox will savor break, but know crunch time awaits," 7 July 2019 Still, as Sestan acknowledged to me, the project was an outlier for him. — Matthew Shaer, New York Times, "Scientists Are Giving Dead Brains New Life. What Could Go Wrong?," 2 July 2019 That year, the state’s biggest insurer used data made available by a price-transparency law to shame the hospital as a pricing outlier—getting public support which forced the hospital to lower its prices. — The Economist, "Will transparent pricing make America’s health care cheaper?," 28 June 2019 The person who does commit a crime is an outlier from society in terms of their behavior. — Arash Javanbakht, The Conversation, "Can experts determine who might be a mass killer? 3 questions answered," 8 Aug. 2019 But for as exceptional as Lawrence’s talent is, the speed of his ascent is no longer an outlier. — Rachel Bachman, WSJ, "How Clemson Emulated Silicon Valley to Win a National Title," 8 Jan. 2019 In a conference that focused heavily on concrete advice and best practices, Stevenson’s speech was perhaps an outlier. — Matthew Heimer, Fortune, ""Do Some Uncomfortable and Inconvenient Things": A Civil Rights Champion's Call to Action for CEOs," 27 June 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'outlier.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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