out

/aʊt/52 verbsVowel-initial — links backwards

Something exits a container, becomes visible, or is exhausted.

OUT is the mirror of IN, but it carries two extra jobs that trip learners up. First emergence: find out, turn out, come out are all about information becoming visible. Second exhaustion: run out, wear out, burn out mean the supply is gone.

Notice that eat out and eat up are opposites in a way the particles predict exactly — UP finishes the food, OUT leaves the house.

What it does to the sound

OUT is a stressed diphthong /aʊ/ and it is the loudest syllable in any phrasal verb containing it. It also ends in /t/, so when a vowel follows — find out about it — that final T flaps too.

What OUT means

Exit — leave an enclosed space

The literal sense: from inside to outside.

go out get out move out check out eat out

Emergence — become known or visible

Hidden information surfaces. This is the sense behind the largest family of OUT verbs, and the one learners guess last.

find out turn out point out figure out come out

Exhaustion — the supply is gone

Something is used up entirely, to the point of failure.

run out of wear outburn outsell outpass out

Distribution — spread among many

One source, many recipients.

hand out give outshare outspread out

Removal — take away or erase

Something is deliberately removed from a set.

cut outcross outleave outthrow outrule out

Every verb that takes OUT

The complete list — 52 of them. The section above groups the common ones by what OUT is doing.