outlandish
owt-LAND-ish
/aʊtˈlændɪʃ/
Looking or sounding bizarre, unfamiliar, or ridiculously exaggerated.
Carries a flavor of alien origin, extreme fashion, or absurdly far-fetched statements.
The story behind the word. In Old English, an 'ūtlandisċ' person was literally someone coming from the 'out-lands'—a foreigner or stranger from beyond the kingdom's borders. Over centuries, native villagers associated foreign customs with bizarre extravagance, giving the word its modern meaning of absurd oddity.
Word relationships
- bizarre: Bizarre stresses surrealism, while outlandish stresses far-fetched or foreign extremity.
- conventional: Conventional describes familiar, traditional forms that cause no surprise.
Commonly confused with
- outlandish vs foreign: Foreign simply means from another country; outlandish implies strangely extreme or absurd.
Word family
- outlandishly (adverb): In an outlandish manner.
- outlandishness (noun): The state of being outlandish.
Collocations
- outlandish claim
- outlandish outfit
- outlandish theory
- outlandish idea
Example sentences
- "He wore an outlandish costume featuring fluorescent feathers and ringing brass bells." Fashion commentary
Memory hook
OUT-LAND-ish comes from an OUTside LAND. Extravagantly alien.
When not to use
Avoid using for internal, subtle psychological differences; it refers to glaring external oddity.
Fun facts
- In Dutch, the closely related word 'uitlands' still neutrally means 'foreign' without any negative connotation of strangeness.
Explore more words
grotesque, surreal, incredulous, flabbergast, scandalous, astonish
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