outlier
/ˈaʊtlaɪə(r)/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈaʊtlaɪər/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈau̇t-ˌlī(-ə)r/ (ame, mw)
outlier — noun
- outliersingular
- outliersplural
1. someone or something whose qualities stand so far apart from everyone else in a
someone or something whose qualities stand so far apart from everyone else in a group that this case alone cannot show what the group is usually like.
Sari was the only painter in a family of accountants, an outlier among her relatives.
an outlier among [group] for a person whose traits differ from the rest
Among the small village shops, the new electric car factory was a clear outlier.
outlier in/among [setting] for a thing that doesn't fit the surrounding pattern
Hassan's love of opera made him an outlier in a high school where everyone listened to hip-hop.
The quiet town of Marwell is an outlier in a region known for noisy port cities.
One angry review was an outlier among hundreds of happy comments about the restaurant.
文法句型
an outlier in/among [group]
用法筆記
Subject is usually a person, organisation, place, or event whose features stand out as unusual within a larger named or implied group; often followed by 'in' or 'among' + the group.
常見錯誤
2. a place, building, or natural feature that sits well apart from the main area it
a place, building, or natural feature that sits well apart from the main area it belongs to, or that is grouped separately from a larger related body.
Noa's farm was an outlier of the village, twenty kilometres east along a dirt road.
outlier of [main place] for a location set apart from its parent area
The small temple is an outlier of the ancient city, standing alone on the next hill.
Geologists call the lone rock formation an outlier of the larger mountain range to the north.
That cluster of pine trees is an outlier of the main forest, separated by a wide grassland.
文法句型
an outlier of [main place/body]
用法筆記
Distinguish from sense 1: this sense always describes a physical location or feature that is geographically separated from a larger main body, while sense 1 covers any person or thing that differs in traits from a group.
常見錯誤
3. a number or measurement within some collected data that lies much higher or lowe
a number or measurement within some collected data that lies much higher or lower than most other values and so may not reflect the usual pattern.
Hao removed one outlier from the test scores before he calculated the class average.
remove an outlier from [data set] for handling extreme values in analysis
One bakery's daily sales were a huge outlier in the survey because of a wedding order that morning.
an outlier in [the data/survey] for a single unusually large or small value
Hamza warned the team not to draw conclusions from a single outlier in the temperature readings.
On the chart, Iris circled the one point that sat far above the rest as an obvious outlier.
The unusually fast runner was treated as an outlier in the study of average marathon times.
- anomaly
a value that breaks the expected pattern; outlier is the standard term in statistics.
- extreme value
more technical; refers specifically to the highest or lowest measurement in a set.
文法句型
an outlier in [the data/results/sample]
用法筆記
Frequently appears with verbs like 'remove', 'exclude', 'treat as', or 'circle'; common in statistics, research, and reports. Distinguish from sense 1 by the data-set context — this sense always describes a number, score, or measurement, not a person's personality or a place.