as in slightly
by a very small margin
we barely made it to the church on time
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of barely
Miraculously, the back of the plane where the children were seated was barely damaged.
—
Emily Blackwood, PEOPLE, 1 May 2026
Chapman drew a walk to load the bases, and second baseman Arraez pulled a changeup that was barely above the ground into right field for a two-run single.
—Justice Delos Santos, Mercury News, 1 May 2026
Officials said the knife barely missed her spinal cord.
—Aj Willingham, AJC.com, 1 May 2026
Polo Bar Ralph Lauren’s American restaurant opened in 2015 and has barely cooled off since.
—Hanna Wickes, Charlotte Observer, 1 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for barely
Emily Blackwood, PEOPLE, 1 May 2026
Chapman drew a walk to load the bases, and second baseman Arraez pulled a changeup that was barely above the ground into right field for a two-run single.
—Justice Delos Santos, Mercury News, 1 May 2026
Officials said the knife barely missed her spinal cord.
—Aj Willingham, AJC.com, 1 May 2026
Polo Bar Ralph Lauren’s American restaurant opened in 2015 and has barely cooled off since.
—Hanna Wickes, Charlotte Observer, 1 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for barely
Recent Examples of Synonyms for barely
Adverb
-
Winds on Sunday will be slightly stronger, as well.—
Rachael Jay,
CBS News,
2 May 2026
-
Each bag is slightly different, all of them built to last, and the result is a bag equally at home on a boat, a beach, or a farmers’ market.—
Amanda Eyre Ward,
Travel + Leisure,
2 May 2026
Adverb
-
When the king talked about his Christian faith, GOP lawmakers were rowdier than Democrats, many of whom offered just tepid applause.—
Kathryn Palmer,
USA Today,
29 Apr. 2026
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Then, not only that, just to be able to cash in, that’s like the next step there.—
Abbey Mastracco,
New York Daily News,
29 Apr. 2026
Adverb
-
Instead of focusing narrowly on tiny frequency bands, future surveys may need to examine broader wavelength ranges across large populations of nearby, Sun-like stars.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
3 May 2026
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Before voters narrowly approved extending the tax in 2024, most of the current commissioners said the tax should not go to a new stadium.—
Nicolas Villamil,
The Orlando Sentinel,
3 May 2026
Adverb
-
At the time, Bores could hardly be blamed for steering conversations to the other planks of his platform.—
Gideon Lewis-Kraus,
New Yorker,
7 May 2026
-
That’s hardly the only measure that’s gotten a cold reception outside the White House.—
Bloomberg,
Oc Register,
7 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Barely.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/barely. Accessed 8 May. 2026.
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