SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
marginal
adjective
Small in extent or only just meeting a relevant threshold.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Small or barely adequate
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topMarginal here means a small change or nearness to a threshold. Peripheral concerns an edge or a secondary position; negligible makes the stronger claim of practical insignificance.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See marginal in use
The revised layout offered only a marginal improvement in reading space.
A neighborhood festival offered volunteers meal vouchers commensurate with the length of their shifts. During planning, Priya noticed that one team carried a disproportionate share of the setup work. Adding one helper would provide only marginal relief because that team still had most of the heavy tasks.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license