Which to use
“outline” is a noun and “outlying” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,071
- “outline” frequency rank
- #26,540
- “outlying” frequency rank
- 34611
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | outline | outlying |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A line marking the boundary of an object figure. | Relatively remote from some central location. |
Letter map: outline vs outlying
Shared letters muted; letters that set outline and outlying apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. outline runs 7 letters (VVCCVCV) against outlying's 8 (VVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for outline / outlying
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: outline is anoun and outlyinganadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34611, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
outline is recorded at frequency rank #8,071, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈaʊtlaɪn/. outlying is at rank #26,540, tagged as anadj.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 34611, this pair ranks #319,277 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of outline vs outlying
Shared letters: ilnotu. Private to "outline": e. Private to "outlying": gy.
"outline" · 7 letters · shape VVCCVCV · "outlying" · 8 letters · shape VVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "outline" and "outlying" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "outline" vs "outlying" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "outline" and "outlying". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "outline" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "outlying" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #319,277 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "outline" and "outlying" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "outline vs outlive". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #319,277 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.