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

Lanes of South El Camino Real and the westbound Highway 92 off-ramp to South El Camino Real were closed for roughly three hours following the collision, police said. —Jason Green, Mercury News, 24 Jan. 2026

In June 2024's legislative first round, the National Rally and allies took roughly a third of the vote. —Güney Yıldız, Forbes.com, 24 Jan. 2026

But the battlefield gains along the roughly 600-mile front line have been costly for Moscow, and the Russian economy is feeling the consequences of the war and international sanctions. —Arkansas Online, 23 Jan. 2026

In a phone interview with CNN, Camarda highlighted that in the early 1980s, NASA had estimated that the space shuttle would have a roughly 1 in 100,000 chance of experiencing a deadly malfunction. —Jackie Wattles, CNN Money, 23 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for roughly

• gruffly