borderline
Americanadjective
-
on or near a border or boundary.
-
having an uncertain, indeterminate, or debatable status.
He was a borderline case for admission to the program—please encourage him to apply again next year.
-
not quite meeting accepted, expected, or average standards.
Discover specific how-to strategies for turning a borderline student into a confident achiever.
- Synonyms:
- marginal, unsure, precarious, doubtful
-
approaching bad taste or obscenity.
He made several borderline remarks that offended them.
noun
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borderlines
plural
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null border line.
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a border or boundary.
The town of Tiverton, Rhode Island, rests on the once-disputed Massachusetts borderline.
-
a notional dividing line.
Often the borderline between safety and toxicity is very small, and every year thousands of fish die as a consequence of chemical overdosing.
-
-
a person with borderline personality disorder.
noun
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a border; dividing line; line of demarcation
-
an indeterminate position between two conditions or qualities
the borderline between friendship and love
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of borderline
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.
See Examples For:
"Member states have increased their defence expenditure for a borderline country like Finland. That's a good thing," Stubb said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
"For patients at borderline risk, knowing their calcium score can help determine whether their risk is actually lower or higher than initially estimated, which can help guide treatment decisions," Shah explained.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 12, 2026
The Aston Martin car seems to be a midfield-level chassis now, somewhere around the borderline of getting into the final part of qualifying, depending on circuit layout, if it had a competitive engine.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
Watching the stop-motion monsters climb over ruined walls to poke at Greece’s elite soldiers, it’s easy to forgive the movie for its less-than-stellar dubbing or borderline nonsensical love story.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2026
My grades and scores put me at the borderline.
From "Adrift" by Paul Griffin
They move freely, obscuring borderlines between categories that once loomed like separate land masses: jazz and chamber music; acoustic and electric ensembles; songs and improvised forms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
Global warming also has had its way with borderlines.
From Washington Post ● May 7, 2020
Up to 15 million people left their homes to begin a new life in India or Pakistan, and by September 1947 the formal exchange of population across the Punjab borderlines had become government policy.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 5, 2017
Fitzgerald's Jazz Age was a time when the borderlines between the fortunes of the elite and the spoils of organised crime were blurred and shifting.
From BBC ● May 31, 2013
When there was no compromise involving other factors, borderlines were chosen to make the best possible separation of national groups, connecting the best marked physical features available.
From Area Handbook for Albania by Sarah Jane Elpern
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.
