barely

adverb

bare·​ly ˈber-lē 

1

: in a meager manner : plainly

a barely furnished room

2

: scarcely, hardly

barely enough money for lunch

Synonyms

• slightly
• just
• narrowly
• hardly

Examples of barely in a Sentence

We barely spoke the entire time we were in the car.

There are barely any new features in this software.

There is barely a difference between the two.

Recent Examples on the Web

And while that should be central to conversations about tourism, it has barely been mentioned. —Wilson Santiago Burgos, USA Today, 23 Aug. 2025

Breakthrough technologies—such as real-time watershed monitoring or nutrient and plastic pollution control, to name a few—barely register with investors. —Eyal Harel, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025

Anyone who’s ever tried to rank CFB teams knows the process becomes totally frustrating around No. 14 or so, and that’s barely a tenth of the way through the current FBS list. —Jason Kirk, New York Times, 22 Aug. 2025

Models like the original version of OpenAI’s Sora were shockingly good, but could barely go 15 seconds before displaying some glitch that ruined the magic trick. —Reed Albergotti, semafor.com, 22 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1513, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for barely

• unfairly
• fairly
• rarely
• squarely