as in marginal
located at or near a border
a frontier town with a reputation for vice and lawlessness
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in border
a region along the dividing line between two countries
the Apaches were once feared on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico frontier
Synonyms & Similar Words
2
as in countryside
a rural region that forms the edge of the settled or developed part of a country
Alaska has been called America's last frontier
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of frontier
Charlie Campbell, Time, 11 Dec. 2025
Shlomit Wagman, Fortune, 30 May 2026
Just 30 minutes from San Juan, the property is a 493-acre frontier cradled by two massive nature sanctuaries.
—Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 29 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for frontier
Adjective
That worried Huang, who fears a Chinese rival, and White House officials, who believe Chinese dependence on non-frontier American chips is the best way to ensure a lead in AI.
—Charlie Campbell, Time, 11 Dec. 2025
Noun
The companies building frontier AI operate in a competitive environment where unilateral restraint is a strategic liability.
—Shlomit Wagman, Fortune, 30 May 2026
Just 30 minutes from San Juan, the property is a 493-acre frontier cradled by two massive nature sanctuaries.
—Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 29 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for frontier
Recent Examples of Synonyms for frontier
Adjective
-
Arsenal are the kings of marginal games, beating their opponents with physicality, pressing and defensive possession.—
Liam Tharme,
New York Times,
31 May 2026
-
Weather models show an isolated strong to severe storm is possible Saturday with hail and strong winds, but the chances are marginal, the Storm Prediction Center shows.—
Kendrick Calfee,
Kansas City Star,
30 May 2026
Noun
-
Tucked in the northeastern part of Congo close to the Ugandan border, Ituri province has been reeling from attacks by the Allied Democratic Force, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
28 May 2026
-
The programs on opposite sides of the Missouri-Kansas border will play the neutral-site game at T-Mobile Center.—
Killian Wright,
Kansas City Star,
28 May 2026
Noun
-
Days quickly merge into one another, interspersed with dips in the large pool—or aperitivo beside it; bike rides through the adjacent countryside; road trips to the beach; visits to nearby villages, including Margarites, which is famous for its ceramic making.—
Katie Silcox,
Vogue,
28 May 2026
-
Hafsia Herzi plays Nora, a successful government worker living in a beautiful house in a marshy stretch of French countryside, with a dependable husband, an annoying daughter, and Monica Bellucci for a neighbor.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
27 May 2026
Noun
-
Trump has effectively imposed a fuel blockade on the island by threatening tariffs on countries supplying it with fuel, igniting seemingly endless power outages and delivering new blows to the island's already ailing economy.—
Phil Stewart,
USA Today,
30 May 2026
-
The journey to this point began almost a century ago and hundreds of miles away in China, when Mao Zedong reshaped Marxist–Leninist theory to fit the pre-industrial conditions of his country.—
Dhruv Tikekar,
CNN Money,
30 May 2026
Noun
-
Even the foundations of today’s artificial intelligence boom were laid by the NSF in the 1980s and 1990s, when neural networks were a backwater dismissed by mainstream computer science.—
Gautam Mukunda,
Twin Cities,
14 May 2026
-
For decades, seabed cartography was a scientific backwater.—
Natalie Sum Yue Chung,
Fortune,
3 May 2026
Noun
-
The film eliminated even a gesture toward a plot while showing solitary nonprofessional and real-life ranch-hand Misael Saavedra chopping and hauling logs in the Argentinian hinterlands (in actuality, Alonso’s family’s ranch).—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
25 May 2026
-
Together, all of those developments deepened class and regional inequalities, as capital flowed away from workers in the industrial hinterland toward financial centers like New York.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
15 May 2026
Noun
-
The new trailer looks to give campers a little more backcountry muscle and versatility combined with Oliver's tried-and-true double-hull construction.—
C.C. Weiss
May 30,
New Atlas,
30 May 2026
-
The biking is along gravel roads through Finland’s northeastern backcountry, crossing boreal forest, marshland, lakes, and low Arctic hills.—
Everett Potter,
Forbes.com,
30 May 2026
Noun
-
Walls, trees and bushes marked the borders.—
Thomas Adam,
The Conversation,
29 May 2026
-
Yellowjackets build a paper nest in a cavity or underground, often inhabiting a rodent hole or hiding the nest under a bush or a brush pile.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
29 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Frontier.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/frontier. Accessed 5 Jun. 2026.
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