as in slightly
by a very small margin
we barely made it to the church on time
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Recent Examples of barely
The Skydance acquisition of Paramount was barely a month old when the word began to spread.
—
Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 10 Oct. 2025
La Niña is back, but just barely.
—Hayleigh Evans, AZCentral.com, 10 Oct. 2025
That’s modest by hedge-fund standards but remarkable for someone barely out of college.
—Sharon Goldman, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2025
In 2019, the predecessor to ChatGPT was barely able to string a coherent sentence together; just three years later, fed with more data and computing power, ChatGPT became a world sensation.
—Billy Perrigo, Time, 9 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for barely
Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 10 Oct. 2025
La Niña is back, but just barely.
—Hayleigh Evans, AZCentral.com, 10 Oct. 2025
That’s modest by hedge-fund standards but remarkable for someone barely out of college.
—Sharon Goldman, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2025
In 2019, the predecessor to ChatGPT was barely able to string a coherent sentence together; just three years later, fed with more data and computing power, ChatGPT became a world sensation.
—Billy Perrigo, Time, 9 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for barely
Recent Examples of Synonyms for barely
Adverb
-
However, this list is slightly different.—
Tim Spiers,
New York Times,
7 Oct. 2025
-
While each stage of the perimenopausal, menopausal and postmenopausal journey has certain hallmarks, each woman will experience each slightly differently.—
Katherine Speller,
Flow Space,
7 Oct. 2025
Adverb
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The Yellow Jackets scored three times in just over three minutes on three huge plays.—
Updated October 10,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
10 Oct. 2025
-
The area is mostly agricultural land just east of the Sacramento River and a few miles west of Interstate 5.—
Rosalio Ahumada,
Sacbee.com,
10 Oct. 2025
Adverb
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Ratification conventions in three of the most critical states – Massachusetts, New York and Virginia – were narrowly divided; ratification hung in the balance.—
Donald Nieman,
The Conversation,
7 Oct. 2025
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After narrowly missing out on winning its division, New York was forced to play the Boston Red Sox in the wild card round of the playoffs, and after winning two straight games to make it to the ALDS, the Yankees are in trouble down 2-0 to the Blue Jays.—
Shaun McAvoy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
6 Oct. 2025
Adverb
-
Keaton was involved with Beatty at the time, though her performance hardly takes a backseat to his portrayal of lefty journalist John Reed.—
Stephanie Zacharek,
Time,
12 Oct. 2025
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Her open limbs dangle all over the velvet, her pubic triangle hardly concealed.—
Doreen St. Félix,
New Yorker,
11 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Barely.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/barely. Accessed 12 Oct. 2025.
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