barely
Americanadverb
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only just; scarcely; no more than; almost not.
He had barely enough money to pay for the car.
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without disguise or concealment; openly.
They gave the facts to him barely.
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scantily; meagerly; sparsely.
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Archaic. merely.
adverb
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only just; scarcely
barely enough for their needs
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informal not quite; nearly
barely old enough
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scantily; poorly
barely furnished
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archaic openly
Usage
See hardly.
Etymology
Origin of barely
First recorded before 950; Middle English; Old English bærlīce; bare 1, -ly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His neighbors, he said, offered him food daily, even when they barely had enough to eat.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 4, 2026
ChatGPT maker OpenAI recently said it would shut down its AI video generation app Sora, barely six months after its launch, in a shift towards business tools.
From Barron's • Apr. 3, 2026
Yet the net result is all the same: The U.S. is barely creating any new jobs.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 2, 2026
But there’s almost nothing in “Galaxy” that even rises to the level of an attempted gag, and the movie is notably weaker than “The Super Mario Bros,” which was just barely watchable.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026
A duty, I can barely fathom the word.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
