Outsider

How to spell outsider

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce outsider

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does outsider mean?

1. nounA person who does not belong to a particular group, organisation, or community.
2. nounA competitor, especially a horse or candidate, that is widely thought to have little chance of winning.

Outsider in a sentence

• As a new hire, she felt like an outsider during the first few meetings.

• The rank outsider stunned the bookmakers by winning the race.

• The committee was reluctant to let an outsider review its private accounts.

• Few backed the outsider for the leadership contest, yet she finished second.

Where does outsider come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a transparent English compound that grew out of the native Old English elements still visible in it. The first part, 'out', traces back to the Old English 'ut', meaning 'away' or 'beyond', and the second part, 'side', comes from Old English 'side', meaning the flank or edge of something. The phrase 'outside' had settled into English by the late medieval period to mean the region beyond a boundary, and by the early 1800s writers added the agent suffix '-er' to coin 'outsider' for a person who stands beyond a particular group or circle. It quickly picked up a sporting sense too, naming a racehorse thought to have little chance of winning, the opposite of the 'favourite'. Because every part of the word is plain and familiar, the only real spelling question is keeping the single 'd' and remembering it is one solid word rather than two.

How the word is built

• out- (outside, beyond)
• side (a position or boundary)
• -er (one associated with)