vaguely

adverb

vague·​ly ˈvāg-lē 

: in a vague way: such as

a

: somewhat or slightly

He's vaguely familiar with the area.

… men on foot, dressed vaguely like janitors …

—A. L. Kennedy

b

: not clearly

There were grants, he explained vaguely, that had to be spent before the money went back to the federal government, so my main job was to buy lavish art books, as quickly as possible.

—Michael Blaine

Where once the city was a battleground for two main militias … now at least five militias claim vaguely defined pockets as their own.

—Jeffrey Bartholet

I've always believed closers are like girlfriends: You remember the great ones, you remember the awful ones and you vaguely remember everyone in between. (You could say the same about hockey goalies and field goal kickers.)

—Bill Simmons

Examples of vaguely in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In 1945, the U.S. military controlled both Japan and South Korea, and oversaw purges of even vaguely leftist activity. —E. Tammy Kim, New Yorker, 16 June 2025

The whole concept that a cop would purposefully misdirect an entire town and her family about where a girl died because something looked vaguely weird about the boys on the boat with her is absurd, and again, there was proof of that anyway, which everyone seemed content to ignore. —Paul Tassi, Forbes.com, 13 June 2025

During their visits, the team encountered a few vaguely familiar-looking frogs, the study said. —Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 12 June 2025

Even the title, with its hints of money and consumption, sounds cold and vaguely condemnatory, like a Marxist critique of And Just Like That.... —Tom Gliatto, People.com, 12 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1663, in the meaning defined above