vaguely

adverb

vague·​ly ˈvāg-lē 

: in a vague way: such as

a

: somewhat or slightly

He's vaguely familiar with the area.

… men on foot, dressed vaguely like janitors …

—A. L. Kennedy

b

: not clearly

There were grants, he explained vaguely, that had to be spent before the money went back to the federal government, so my main job was to buy lavish art books, as quickly as possible.

—Michael Blaine

Where once the city was a battleground for two main militias … now at least five militias claim vaguely defined pockets as their own.

—Jeffrey Bartholet

I've always believed closers are like girlfriends: You remember the great ones, you remember the awful ones and you vaguely remember everyone in between. (You could say the same about hockey goalies and field goal kickers.)

—Bill Simmons

Examples of vaguely in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The app is vaguely reminiscent of Clubhouse, the audio chat room service that saw a boom during the pandemic and has since withered away. —Bloomberg, The Mercury News, 17 Apr. 2024

While Cole has been vocal in his response to Lamar, Drake only vaguely referenced the verse during a show shortly after. —Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 12 Apr. 2024

Now her look alternates between vaguely professorial and something more glamorous. —Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2024

That someone is Mia (Georgia Lock), who seems to wake from another such vaguely troubling reverie every 20 minutes or so here. —Dennis Harvey, Variety, 4 Apr. 2024

All the participants in Fantasy Drag Race’s seasons look vaguely like dolls, while Slay Drag Race AI, which recently eliminated Scooby-Doo sidekick Shaggy and Marceline from Adventure Time, is hosted by a surprisingly accurate-looking Dora the Explorer. —Marah Eakin, WIRED, 3 Apr. 2024

The vaguely Mitteleuropean city Wonka had come to — Viennese shops, Italian architecture, English language — was a happy melting pot: All races seemed to coexist without race meaning anything. —Kabir Chibber, New York Times, 31 Mar. 2024

The results of this research are, at best, vaguely correlational and prove nothing. —Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 28 Mar. 2024

Highly steeped in conventional courtship, the show offers up traditional gender roles, vaguely Christian themes and an unwavering argument that successful love stories end with a man down on one knee. —Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 26 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1663, in the meaning defined above