slightly

adverb

Definition of slightlynext
1
as in barely
by a very small margin I thought the first one was slightly better

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in little
in a very small quantity or degree he was slightly curious about the identity of the wine, but not enough to bother asking

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 slightly The course of Alzheimer’s disease is slightly slower than that of Lewy body dementia, according to Vossel. — Iris Kwok, Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 2026 Although Ossoff is heavily favored to win reelection, Bottoms is trailing Jackson slightly in the RealClearPolitics average of polls heading into Election Day. — Anna Giaritelli, The Washington Examiner, 29 Oct. 2026 And in a study in April, Lee and his colleagues described a slightly more precise synapse-deleting tool called Synthetic Trogocytosis, or SynTrogo, which works by recruiting astrocytes, a type of brain cell that prunes synapses naturally. — Simon Makin, Scientific American, 29 Oct. 2026 In Game 5, the Brewers didn’t blink despite momentum swinging in the Rays’ favor ever so slightly. — Scott Thompson Outkick, FOXNews.com, 29 Oct. 2026 However, the menu may vary slightly depending on the region your family is from to honor their ancestral motherland. — Zayda Rivera, Parents, 29 Oct. 2026 The rain chance is slightly better during the day, but high temperatures will rise to the mid-80s. — Miami Herald Staff Report, Miami Herald, 29 Oct. 2026 But the figure slightly spooked investors, sending the company stock down 2 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday. — Glenn Taylor, Footwear News, 29 Oct. 2026 One possiblity is that financial conditions now appear slightly less accommodative. — New York Times, 28 Oct. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for slightly
  1. barely
  2. little
  3. just
  4. nominally
  5. narrowly
  6. negligibly
  7. somewhat
Adverb
  • How much families can actually save at checkout Saving a buck or two on one item barely registers.
    — Ashley Lynch, Charlotte Observer, 27 Oct. 2026
  • Some people swear by a barely-there rim; others prefer the reassuring heft of a substantial tumbler.
    — Vy Yang, Architectural Digest, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of barely
Adverb
  • On standard time, early risers get the benefit of a little more morning sunlight.
    — Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 31 Oct. 2026
  • Crossing county lines between Sonoma to the south and Mendocino to the north, this area is so little-known, even to locals, that marketing experts have saddled it with the moniker Mendonoma, in an effort to locate it in the cultural consciousness.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of little
Adverb
  • The group of girls are just truly amazing and really fight for each other.
    — Alex Kushel, Sun Sentinel, 28 Oct. 2026
  • Reader poll shows opposition The latest debate comes just a week after the council approved raising its members’ annual salaries by nearly 74%, from $69,000 to $119,750, beginning with the next term.
    — Natalie Jones, Baltimore Sun, 28 Oct. 2026
Definition of just
Adverb
  • But even for those species that nominally benefit from it, the law is very rarely enforced.
    — Marina Bolotnikova, Vox, 24 Oct. 2026
  • The Senate remained nominally Republican but featured a working majority of Democrats and progressive Republicans.
    — Ron Elving, NPR, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of nominally
Adverb
  • And in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed has narrowly won the Democratic Senate nomination, a victory for the party's progressive wing.
    — Brittney Melton, NPR, 28 Oct. 2026
  • The sun wasn't even up when a truck barreled down Fellsway East in Malden, Massachusetts, and crashed into a tree, narrowly missing people standing nearby.
    — Brandon Truitt, CBS News, 28 Oct. 2026
Definition of narrowly
Adverb
  • In an economy where wages are anchored to what compute would cost to replicate human work, human labor becomes economically marginal—not worthless, but negligibly small relative to the overall pie.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 4 Apr. 2026
  • In other words, the chin contributes negligibly to resisting chewing forces.
    — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 24 Jan. 2026
Definition of negligibly
Adverb
  • Their second record is somewhat sleeker—no song surpasses five minutes—but packs considerable emotion into these tighter forms.
    — Marissa Lorusso, Pitchfork, 28 Oct. 2026
  • Yet Dunlap is also somewhat insulated from that critique due to his years spent as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, a pro-2nd Amendment group that supports hunters and fishermen.
    — David Sivak, The Washington Examiner, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of somewhat

Browse Nearby Words

slighting
slightly
slightness
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Cite this Entry

“Slightly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/slightly. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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