outer
/ˈaʊtɚ/adjective, noun
outer is spelled O-U-T-E-R. The wrong spelling people search most is outter: about 360 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Outer is an adjective meaning “Outside; external”.
How many letters and syllables are in outer?
| Letters | 5: O-U-T-E-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 18 times per million words; the 4,667th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, outter, about 360 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell outer?
Outer is spelled O-U-T-E-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for outer in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is outer?
Outer appears 18 times per million words in written English, the 4,667th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce outer?
- UK /ˈaʊtə/
- US /ˈaʊtɚ/
- US [ˈaʊɾɚ]
Outer has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-outta.ogg, En-us-outer.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with outer
Sounds like: outta (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with outer?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as outer from its last stressed vowel (/aʊtəɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: route, outre.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of outer
- outermore comparative, rare
- outermost superlative
- outmost superlative
- outers plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does outer mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Outside; external.
- 2
Farther from the centre of the inside.
- 3
comparative form of out (“(more) open about one's sexuality, etc”): more out
noun
- 1
An outer part.
- 2
An uncovered section of the seating at a stadium or sportsground.
- 3
The fourth circle on a target, outside the inner and magpie.
- 4
A shot which strikes the outer of a target.
- 5
The smallest single unit sold by wholesalers to retailers, usually one retail display box.
We ordered two cartons with twelve outers in each.
- 6
Someone who admits to something publicly.
- 7
Someone who outs another.
- 8
One who puts out, ousts, or expels.
- 9
An ouster; dispossession.
- 10
UKOne who supports leaving the European Union.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Outer in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense outside:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does outer come from?
From Middle English outre, outer, outter, uttre, from Old English ūtre, ūtera, ūterra (“outer”), equivalent to out + -er. Compare German äußere (“outer”), Danish ydre (“outer”), Swedish yttre (“outer”), Icelandic ytri (“outer”). Piecewise doublet of utter.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).