roughly

adverb

rough·​ly ˈrə-flē 

1

: in a rough manner: such as

a

: with harshness or violence

treated the prisoner roughly

b

: in crude fashion : imperfectly

roughly dressed lumber

2

: without completeness or exactness : approximately

roughly 20 percent

Synonyms of roughly

• approximately
• about
• around

Examples of roughly in a Sentence

Roughly translated, it means “hurry up!”.

The new product is modeled roughly on an earlier design.

He threw the package roughly in the truck.

The guard told us roughly that we had to stand back.

Recent Examples on the Web

The department eventually helped a hundred and sixty-one workers recover on average roughly three thousand dollars in wages each. —Boyce Upholt, New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2026

Under normal temperature conditions, the vehicle can replenish its battery from 10% to 70% in roughly five minutes, while reaching 97% in about nine minutes. —Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 14 Mar. 2026

The company says the plant will shut down on April 7, eliminating about 600 full-time jobs and roughly 1,200 seasonal positions. —Nina Burns, CBS News, 13 Mar. 2026

The terminal accounts for around 90% of the country’s crude exports and has a loading capacity of roughly 7 million barrels per day. —Sam Meredith, CNBC, 13 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for roughly

• gruffly