Sample Sentences for
marginal
(editor-reviewed)

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  • She was feeling marginally better after a day of rest, though still too weak to return to school.
    marginally = a little
  • After subsisting for three months on an exceedingly marginal diet, McCandless had run up a sizable caloric deficit.  (source)
    marginal = barely adequate
  • Stewardesses have, at best, marginal authority; Barb Wiggin knew when her authority had slipped.  (source)
    marginal = limited
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  • He salvages the inferior Soviet equipment, milled from marginal steel, clumsily soldered; it's all so unsystematic.  (source)
    marginal = of borderline quality
  • Her tone was marginally friendly, though her eye was almost constantly on Esther.  (source)
    marginally = slightly
  • Gogol is bored by the panelists, who keep referring to something called "marginality," as if it were some sort of medical condition.†  (source)
  • It broadcast an exaggerated version of our complicated interior lives to the world, made us feel less alone in the madness of the era, less marginal.  (source)
    marginal = on the edge of where everyone else was
  • Just doing that made Pattie feel marginally better.  (source)
    marginally = a little
  • We were alone, apart from the glow on the horizon that we watched carefully each night, waiting for any signs of activity or change as we began to eke out a marginal existence.  (source)
    marginal = barely adequate
  • Realizing I'd dodged something huge, I relaxed marginally.  (source)
    marginally = a small amount
  • Amy returned from a dance one February night to find him lying on her bed, naked, on top of the covers, groggy from a very marginal pill overdose.  (source)
    marginal = slight
  • You'd only need to be facing the wrong way at the wrong time or stand marginally too close to another person.  (source)
    marginally = a small amount
  • Demand for resources has exceeded supply for decades in marginal geopolitical areas, hence the famines and droughts; but very soon, demand is going to exceed supply for everyone.  (source)
    marginal = of less importance
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meaning too rare to warrant focus

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  • Having studied the marginal notes written in Andrey's delicate script, the Count tapped the entry twice.  (source)
    marginal = written in the margin
  • Alex turns onto Marginal Way, and my teeth clatter together as we bump over the old pitted pavement, my stomach yo-yoing every time we jolt over another pothole.  (source)
    Marginal = a proper noun
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