Instant vs Marginal - What's the difference?
instant | marginal |
A very short period of time; a moment.
* She paused for only an instant , which was just enough time for John to change the subject.
A single, usually precise, point in time.
* The instant the alarm went off, he fled the building.
An instant beverage or food, especially instant coffee.
A day of the current month (abbreviated as : )
* In response to your letter of the twenty-first instant...
(dated) Impending; imminent.
* Prior
(dated) Urgent; pressing; acute.
* Bible, Rom. xii. 12
* Carlyle
Occurring immediately; immediate; present.
* Fuller
* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
, title=
, chapter=2 Lasting for a short moment; momentary; short-lived.
Very quickly and easily prepared.
Of the current month (abbreviation inst.).
* “I refer to your letter of the 16th inst. in regard to traffic disruption”
(poetic) At once; immediately.
* 1819 , Lord Byron, Don Juan , I.182:
(uncomparable) Of, relating to, or located at or near a margin or edge; also figurative usages of location and margin (edge) .
# Written in the margin of a book.
#* 1999 , R. I. Page, Introduction to English Runes , Boydell Press, page 198:
# (geography) Sharing a border; geographically adjacent.
(comparable) Determined by a small margin; having a salient characteristic determined by a small margin.
# Of a value, or having a characteristic that is of a value, that is close to being unacceptable or leading to exclusion from a group or category.
# (of land) Barely productive.
# (politics, chiefly, UK, Australia, NZ, of a constituency) Subject to a change in sitting member with only a small change in voting behaviour, this usually being inferred from the small winning margin of the previous election.
#* 2002 , Andrew Geddes, Jonathan Tonge, Labour?s Second Landslide: The British General Election 2001 ,
#* 2007 , Robert Waller, Byron Criddle, The Almanac of British Politics ,
#* 2010 , Nick Economou, Zareh Ghazarian, Australian Politics For Dummies ,
(economics, uncomparable) Pertaining to changes resulting from a unit increase in production or consumption of a good.
As nouns the difference between instant and marginal
is that instant is a very short period of time; a moment while marginal is something that is marginal.As adjectives the difference between instant and marginal
is that instant is impending; imminent while marginal is of, relating to, or located at or near a margin or edge; also figurative usages of location and margin (edge).As an adverb instant
is at once; immediately.instant
English
Alternative forms
* instaunt (obsolete)Etymology 1
From (etyl) . More at (l), (l).Noun
(en noun)Etymology 2
From (etyl) and (etyl) instant, from (etyl) ; see state.Adjective
(-)- Impending death is thine, and instant doom.
- Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.
- I am beginning to be very instant for some sort of occupation.
- The instant time is always the fittest time.
citation, passage=No one, however, would have anything to do with him, as Mr. Keeson's orders in those respects were very strict ; he had often threatened any one of his employés with instant dismissal if he found him in company with one of these touts.}}
- instant coffee
Derived terms
* instantize, instantise * instantly * instant replayAdverb
(-)- He left the room for his relinquished sword, / And Julia instant to the closet flew.
Statistics
* ----marginal
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- The marginal area at the edge of the salt-marsh has its own plants.
- In recent years there has been an increase in violence against marginal groups.
- There were more marginal notes than text.
- The early pages had marginal notes most of which were lost when rats nibbled away the manuscript edges.
- Monmouthshire is a Welsh county marginal to England.
- His writing ability was marginal at best.
- ''Having reviewed the test, there are two students below the required standard and three more who are marginal .
- He farmed his marginal land with difficulty.
- In Bristol West, Labour had a majority of only 1,000, so the seat is considered highly marginal this time around.
page 79,
- In ‘battleground’ seats with the Conservatives, Liberal Democrat vote shares increased most in the most marginal seats.
page 58,
- In Outer London, Harrow East is now a more marginal Labour hold than Harrow West.
unnumbered page,
- The pendulum lists the seats from least marginal' to most '''marginal''' for the government on one side, and least '''marginal''' to most ' marginal for the opposition on the other side.
