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Nearly vs Completely - What's the difference?

nearly | completely |

As adverbs the difference between nearly and completely

is that nearly is while completely is (manner) in a complete manner; fully; totally; utterly.

nearly

English

Adverb

(en-adv)
  • *1603 , (John Florio), translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays , III.1:
  • *:And whosoever hath traced mee and nearely looked into my humours, Ile loose a good wager if hee confesse not that there is no rule in their schoole, could, a midde such crooked pathes and divers windings, square and report this naturall motion, and maintaine an apparance of liberty and licence so equall and inflexible […].
  • With close relation; intimately.
  • * (John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • Let that which he learns next be nearly conjoined with what he knows already.
  • * 1837 , The Dublin University Magazine
  • She could have joined most comfortably in all their supposings, and suspicions, and doubts, and prognostications, but the honour of the family was too nearly concerned to allow free reins to her tongue.
  • * 1847 , (Herman Melville), (Omoo)
  • [H]e was also accounted a man of wealth, and was nearly related to a high chief.
  • Closely, in close proximity.
  • *c. 1606 , (William Shakespeare), Macbeth , First Folio 1623, IV.2:
  • *:I doubt some danger do's approach you neerely .
  • In close approximation; almost, virtually.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=1 citation , passage=She was like a Beardsley Salome , he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=Kevin Heng
  • , title=Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily? , volume=101, issue=3, page=184, magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.}}

    Synonyms

    * almost, nigh, well-nigh, near, close to, next to, practically, virtually

    completely

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (manner) In a complete manner; fully; totally; utterly.
  • * 1851 , (Herman Melville), , Chapter 70,
  • It should not have been omitted that previous to completely stripping the body of the leviathan, he was beheaded.
  • * 1899 , (Kate Chopin), , Chapter XIX,
  • She completely abandoned her Tuesdays at home, and did not return the visits of those who had called upon her.
  • * 1969 , E.R. Zumwalt, Jr., ,
  • Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY immediately maneuvered his craft through several strafing runs which completely silenced the enemy.
  • (degree) To the fullest extent or degree; totally.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.}}
  • * 1968 June 8, ,
  • Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control.
  • * 1975 , (Helen Schucman), '', Lesson 75: ''The light has come ,
  • Keep a completely open mind, washed of all past ideas and clean of every concept you have made.

    Synonyms

    * See also