Definition, Meaning & Synonyms

outlier

noun

/ˈaʊtˌlaɪər/

Definition

A person or thing that is different from others in a particular group or situation.

Examples

In the study, one participant was an outlier, whose results significantly differed from the average.
The artist is considered an outlier in the contemporary art scene, known for her unique style.

Meaning

In statistics, an outlier refers to a value that lies outside the range of the other values in a dataset, which may indicate variability in the measurement or may suggest experimental error. In a broader sense, it refers to someone or something that is markedly different from the norm.