borderline
Americanadjective
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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
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approaching bad taste or obscenity.
He made several borderline remarks that offended them.
noun
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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.
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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
-
a border; dividing line; line of demarcation
-
an indeterminate position between two conditions or qualities
the borderline between friendship and love
adjective
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.
She bristles when she realizes some dentists are using AI images to upsell patients—deploying color-coded overlays to dramatize borderline findings and justify questionable treatments.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026
“If consumers were compelled to live within their means, real consumer spending right now would be in a borderline recessionary state,” writes veteran economist David Rosenberg, head of Rosenberg Research.
From Barron's • Apr. 30, 2026
A definite spot-kick in Europe, borderline for the Premier League.
From BBC • Apr. 29, 2026
It sounds borderline insane to consider that the only available team in America’s second-largest market might not be worth as much as the team that just sold in America’s 30th-largest market.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2026
It might have been borderline funny in a different situation.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
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.
