Meaning & use
odd one out
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Meanings
nounsingularBritish
The one thing or person in a group that is different from the rest.
Grammar: Usually used with the or an: the odd one out.
Patterns
- the odd one out
- be the odd one out
Pick the odd one out: apple, banana, carrot, orange.
As the only girl on the team, she felt like the odd one out.
In the family photo, he was the odd one out because he was wearing a suit.
nouncountable
A puzzle or test in which you must find the item that does not belong with the others.
Grammar: Often a school exercise: an odd one out puzzle.
Patterns
- an odd one out question
- an odd one out game
The teacher gave us an odd one out puzzle with animals.
Odd one out questions often appear in aptitude tests.
The children enjoyed playing odd one out in the car.
Common combinations
- be the odd one out
- I was the odd one out at the party.
- feel like the odd one out
- She felt like the odd one out among her classmates.
- find the odd one out
- Find the odd one out in this list of shapes.
- odd one out puzzle
- The odd one out puzzle was easy.
- spot the odd one out
- Can you spot the odd one out?
Synonyms and how they differ
- misfit
- Misfit usually describes a person who does not fit in socially, and can sound negative.
- outsider
- Outsider means someone not part of a group, while odd one out only means different.
- exception
- Exception is a general word for something that does not follow a rule.
- oddball
- Oddball is informal and describes a strange person.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: odd one out or odd man out?
odd one out vs odd man out
Odd man out is the American variant and means the same thing.
Practice
Look at these words: dog, cat, horse, table. Which one is the odd one ___?
Choose one answer.
The set phrase is odd one out. The other prepositions form no idiom.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “odd one out”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.