Standout

How to spell standout

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce standout

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does standout mean?

1. nounA person or thing that is clearly superior to or more noticeable than the others in a group.
2. adjectiveExceptionally good or noticeably superior to the rest.

Standout in a sentence

• noun

  The new intern was the standout of the entire training group.

• adjective

  Her standout performance in the interview won her the job offer.

• noun

  Among all the dishes on the menu, the lemon tart was the standout.

• adjective

  The report praised the team for a standout quarter of record sales.

Where does standout come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound, built from the native verb 'stand' and the adverb 'out', both of which descend from Old English (standan, meaning 'to be upright or remain firm', and ut, meaning 'away' or 'outward'). The underlying phrasal verb 'to stand out', meaning to project from a surface and so to be conspicuous, was in use long before anyone fused the two words into a single noun. American writers began treating 'standout' as a one-word noun and adjective in the early twentieth century, originally in sporting and theatrical reporting where one performer plainly rose above the rest. The image is literal: something that stands apart from a crowd is easy to pick out. Because both halves are ordinary everyday words, the only real spelling question is whether to write it solid, hyphenated, or as two words, and the modern standard for the noun and adjective is the solid form shown here.

How the word is built

• stand (verb: to be upright, to be conspicuous)
• out (adverb of separation/prominence)