as in approximately
close to but not exactly
I have plus or minus five dollars in change
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Recent Examples of plus or minus
The margin of error was plus or minus 3%, with a 95% confidence interval.
—
Emily Dreibelbis, PCMAG, 9 Feb. 2023
The Post-ABC poll was conducted Jan. 27 through Feb. 1, 2023, among a random national sample of 1,003 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points among the full sample and a larger error margin among subgroups.
—Scott Clement, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Feb. 2023
The Post-ABC poll was conducted Jan. 27 through Feb. 1, 2023, among a random national sample of 1,003 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points among the full sample and a larger error margin among subgroups.
—Scott Clement, Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2023
For the third quarter, the company guided for revenue of $2 billion, plus or minus $150 million.
—Kathryn Hardison, WSJ, 26 Jan. 2023
See All Example Sentences for plus or minus
Emily Dreibelbis, PCMAG, 9 Feb. 2023
The Post-ABC poll was conducted Jan. 27 through Feb. 1, 2023, among a random national sample of 1,003 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points among the full sample and a larger error margin among subgroups.
—Scott Clement, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Feb. 2023
The Post-ABC poll was conducted Jan. 27 through Feb. 1, 2023, among a random national sample of 1,003 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points among the full sample and a larger error margin among subgroups.
—Scott Clement, Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2023
For the third quarter, the company guided for revenue of $2 billion, plus or minus $150 million.
—Kathryn Hardison, WSJ, 26 Jan. 2023
See All Example Sentences for plus or minus
Recent Examples of Synonyms for plus or minus
Adverb
-
Lightning hits the United States approximately 25 million times annually.—
STAR-TELEGRAM WEATHER BOT,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
14 Feb. 2026
-
Hallmark says approximately 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged on the holiday (not including those prepackaged valentines exchanged in elementary school classrooms).—
Katey Psencik,
Austin American Statesman,
14 Feb. 2026
Adverb
-
By Thursday, investigators were looking for a man who’s about five feet nine or five feet ten, of average build.—
Paige Williams,
New Yorker,
14 Feb. 2026
-
El Salvador has received about 250 Venezuelan nationals in March last year, while the other nations received far fewer deportees, ranging from 29 sent to Equatorial Guinea to none sent to Palau so far, according to the report.—
STEPHEN GROVES,
Arkansas Online,
14 Feb. 2026
Adverb
-
The bricks in the entryway wall could roughly indicate height.—
Paige Williams,
New Yorker,
14 Feb. 2026
-
The appeals court panel had halted the district court’s ruling in October 2024 pending appeal, roughly two weeks after the lower court had struck down Texas’s ballot harvesting ban.—
Jack Birle,
The Washington Examiner,
13 Feb. 2026
Adverb
-
Back then, the district would hire teachers in the first semester and wait to see how students moved around before extending their contracts to a full year.—
Carley Lanich,
IndyStar,
10 Feb. 2026
-
While the mouse brain contains about 100 million cells, the human brain has around 170 billion, and that menagerie is still undergoing genetic analysis.—
Amber Dance,
Quanta Magazine,
9 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Plus or minus.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plus%20or%20minus. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
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