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outlier

/ˈaʊtˌlaɪə(ɹ)/noun

outlier is spelled O-U-T-L-I-E-R: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, outlier means “A person or thing situated away from the main body or outside its proper place” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of outlier is outliers.

How many letters and syllables are in outlier?

Letters7: O-U-T-L-I-E-R
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 34,504th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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).

How common is outlier?

Outlier appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th 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 outlier?

  • /ˈaʊtˌlaɪə(ɹ)/
  • Canada /ˈʌʊtˌlaɪɚ/

Outlier has 3 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-AnotherFriendlyHuman-outlier.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of outlier

  • outliers plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does outlier mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A person or thing situated away from the main body or outside its proper place.

  2. 2

    An exception.

  3. 3

    A part of a formation separated from the rest of the formation by erosion.

  4. 4

    A value in a statistical sample which does not fit a pattern that describes most other data points; specifically, a value that lies 1.5 IQR beyond the upper or lower quartile.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Outlier in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcas isolé, exception (a person or thing situated away from the main…), lambeau m d'érosion, butte-témoin (part of formation separate from the rest), valeur f anormale, donnée aberrante (value outside pattern in a statistical sample)
GermanAusreißer, Sonderfall (a person or thing situated away from the main…), Zeugenberg (part of formation separate from the rest)
Portugueseextravagante (a person or thing situated away from the main…)
Spanishcerro testigo (part of formation separate from the rest), anomalía, irregularidad, anormalidad, rareza, caso aparte (value outside pattern in a statistical sample)

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 outlier come from?

From outlie + -er.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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