more or less
Idioms-
Approximately, as in The truck will hold nine yards of dirt, more or less . This usage was first recorded in 1589.
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Basically, essentially, as in We more or less agree on the substance of the letter . This usage was first recorded about 1225.
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.
However, when the researchers tracked the same participants from 2021 through 2024, they found that increasing personal climate action did not make someone more or less politically active the following year.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026
Right now, the legal marketplace of ideas is more or less the exclusive domain of judges, with occasional input from law professors who wish they were judges.
From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2026
The murder rate’s previous low came in 2014, capping a decline that had been more or less continuous since the early 1990s.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
This realistic outcome is impossible for Mr. Putin, Mr. Melnichenko more or less admits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
In Italy workmen used a kind of pump, which worked more or less like a giant syringe, to raise water out of wells and canals.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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.
