roughly

adverb

ˈrə-flē How to pronounce roughly (audio)
Definition of roughlynext
1
as in approximately
close to but not exactly roughly 80% of the country's population is of that faith

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in severely
in a manner so as to cause loss or suffering if you treat the machine roughly, it will of course break

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of roughly Buyers can opt for the smaller inner tent, which takes up roughly half the floor area of the outer tent, securing into place to sleep five people. — New Atlas, 25 Oct. 2026 Any updates to the full-year guide (roughly $2 billion) are also welcome, along with commentary on 2027 expectations. — Kevin Stankiewicz,zev Fima, CNBC, 25 Oct. 2026 But that requires roughly $7,000 a month for utilities, mortgage, car payments and groceries, along with the two water leaks. — Jesse Bedayn, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2026 At +112, Tennessee needs to win roughly 47% of the time to justify the price. — Dan Zaksheske Outkick, FOXNews.com, 25 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for roughly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for roughly
  1. approximately
  2. severely
  3. about
  4. harshly
  5. around
  6. oppressively
  7. hard
  8. brutally
Adverb
  • Preliminary estimates place the new submarine’s submerged displacement at approximately 10,100 tons.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 31 Oct. 2026
  • About 85% of the departures were resignations or retirements, the Post found, while approximately 32,000 full-time workers were directly fired.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 30 Oct. 2026
Definition of approximately
Adverb
  • Fetal personhood would also likely eliminate, or at a minimum severely restrict, people who seek to start a family using surrogacy and in vitro fertilization.
    — Jim Defede, Miami Herald, 26 Oct. 2026
  • Torosian had told the prosecutor’s office that an undernourished, severely disabled girl who was receiving treatment at BioMed was subsisting entirely on spinach—on Kotthaus’s orders.
    — D. T. Max, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026
Definition of severely
Adverb
  • Baltzor and her husband Keith, had just finished riding a bunch of about 150 hundred head of their cattle down Highway 205 on horseback from another pasture.
    — Anna King, NPR, 25 Oct. 2026
  • Thanks to a demolition crew’s early Saturday morning implosion, an 18-story office tower that has hung over Clairmont Road in Chamblee for about five decades has been reduced to rubble.
    — Savannah Sicurella, AJC.com, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of about
Adverb
  • For gaining independence, it was harshly punished financially.
    — Elisa Turner, Miami Herald, 29 Oct. 2026
  • When student vigils were harshly dealt with by police, the protests became a campaign.
    — Tim Lister, CNN Money, 26 Oct. 2026
Definition of harshly
Adverb
  • The venue this time around was an equally airy, heavenly, pale-toned 19th-century apartment in Paris’s ninth arrondissement, a bread roll’s throw away from the original Rose Bakery.
    — Mark Holgate, Vogue, 26 Oct. 2026
  • Unlike the initial push to spread money around to bet on would-be AI winners, there is not enough to go around at this stage.
    — Zev Fima, CNBC, 26 Oct. 2026
Definition of around
Adverb
  • The summer had seen Europe endure an oppressively dry, hot summer, which had seen wildfires spring up across the continent.
    — Anthony Wood, Space.com, 26 Aug. 2026
  • After a bit of a reprieve from an oppressively hot summer, another heat wave is set to scorch Southern California this week.
    — Grace Toohey, Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of oppressively
Adverb
  • With nearly 60 murders per day, South Africa has one of the world's highest crime rates, and several of Cape Town's townships are among the areas hardest hit by violent crime.
    — Julie Bourdin, NPR, 25 Oct. 2026
  • Eisenkot believes Netanyahu has purposefully made that process harder.
    — Eric Cortellessa, Time, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of hard
Adverb
  • In June, 1848, workers erected barricades on a nearby street, only to be brutally suppressed by government forces.
    — Maurice Samuels, New Yorker, 29 Oct. 2026
  • Earlier this year, after CNN aired an interview with two men who self-identified as groypers, Fuentes brutally mocked the pair on stream—criticizing them for, among other things, their normie footwear.
    — Nathan Taylor Pemberton, Vanity Fair, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of brutally

Browse Nearby Words

rough it
roughly
roughneck
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Cite this Entry

“Roughly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/roughly. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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