A person, thing, event, or fact that is noticeably different from others in the same group.
Examples
In that conservative town, her views made her an outlier.
The company is an outlier because it grew during the recession.
His performance was not typical, it was an outlier.
The small school is an outlier among large universities.
That warm winter was an outlier in the climate record.
Among the finalists, she was an outlier in both age and background.
Similar words
exception
anomaly
oddity
outsider
deviation
rarity
special case
Separated place or feature
noun
technical
technical
A place, site, or geological feature that lies away from a main body but is related to it or classed with it.
Examples
The island is an outlier of the archipelago.
Archaeologists mapped several outlier sites beyond the main settlement.
The hill is a geological outlier of the limestone formation.
The village began as an outlier of the old estate.
A few outliers lie far from the central cluster.
Similar words
outlying site
satellite
exclave
detached feature
remote feature
separate part
Etymology
Formed from outlie and the agent suffix -er. Older English uses described someone or something lying outside a usual place or group. The modern statistical sense grew from the same spatial idea of lying outside the main body of observations.
FAQ
What does outlier mean?
It means a data point, person, thing, or place that is noticeably different from the rest of a group or pattern.
What is an outlier in statistics?
It is a value or observation that is much different from the other values in a data set.
Is an outlier always a mistake?
No. It may be an error, but it may also be a real extreme value or a sign of a different pattern.
Can a person be an outlier?
Yes. A person can be an outlier if they are unusually different from others in the same group.
What is the plural of outlier?
The plural is outliers.
What is the difference between outlier and anomaly?
They overlap. Outlier is common in statistics and comparison, while anomaly often sounds more technical or unexpected.
Should outliers be removed from data?
Only after checking why they appear. Removing them automatically can hide real information or distort the analysis.
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