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Marginal vs Barely - What's the difference?

marginal | barely |

As an adjective marginal

is (uncomparable) of, relating to, or located at or near a margin or edge; also figurative usages of location and margin (edge) .

As a noun marginal

is something that is.

As an adverb barely is

(degree) by a small margin.

marginal

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • (uncomparable) Of, relating to, or located at or near a margin or edge; also figurative usages of location and margin (edge) .
  • 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.
  • # Written in the margin of a book.
  • There were more marginal notes than text.
  • #* 1999 , R. I. Page, Introduction to English Runes , Boydell Press, page 198:
  • The early pages had marginal notes most of which were lost when rats nibbled away the manuscript edges.
  • # (geography) Sharing a border; geographically adjacent.
  • Monmouthshire is a Welsh county marginal to England.
  • (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.
  • 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 .
  • # (of land) Barely productive.
  • He farmed his marginal land with difficulty.
  • # (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.
  • In Bristol West, Labour had a majority of only 1,000, so the seat is considered highly marginal this time around.
  • #* 2002 , Andrew Geddes, Jonathan Tonge, Labour?s Second Landslide: The British General Election 2001 , page 79,
  • In ‘battleground’ seats with the Conservatives, Liberal Democrat vote shares increased most in the most marginal seats.
  • #* 2007 , Robert Waller, Byron Criddle, The Almanac of British Politics , page 58,
  • In Outer London, Harrow East is now a more marginal Labour hold than Harrow West.
  • #* 2010 , Nick Economou, Zareh Ghazarian, Australian Politics For Dummies , 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.
  • (economics, uncomparable) Pertaining to changes resulting from a unit increase in production or consumption of a good.
  • Derived terms

    * comarginal * marginal cost * marginal utility * postmarginal * submarginal

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something that is .
  • A constituency won with a small margin.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    barely

    English

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (degree) By a small margin.
  • * 1748 , , Oxford University Press (1973), section 8:
  • It becomes, therefore, no inconsiderable part of science barely to know the different operations of mind,
  • * 1925 , Walter Anthony and Tom Reed (titles), Rupert Julian (director), The Phantom of the Opera , silent movie
  • It is barely possible you may hear of a ghost, a Phantom of the Opera!’
  • (degree) Almost not at all.
  • The plane is so far away now I can barely see it.
    Yes, it is barely visible.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=October 23 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=In contrast to what was to come, City were barely allowed any time to settle on the ball in the opening exchanges, with Ashley Young prominent and drawing heavy fouls from Micah Richards and James Milner.}}
  • (archaic) merely.
  • * 1661 , , page 29,
  • Now that fire do's not alwayes barely separate the Elementary parts, but sometimes at least alter also the Ingredients of Bodies

    Usage notes

    It is grammatically a negative word. It therefore collocates with ever rather than never. * Compare You can find barely ever used items on eBay.'' with ''You can almost never find used items on eBay.

    Synonyms

    * (degree) hardly, scarcely * hardly, just, only just, scarcely