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.
-
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.
The standard ratio has moved more or less sideways this week, but the weighted ratio continues to climb.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 26, 2026
The findings revealed consistent misconceptions about which foods are more or less harmful to the environment.
From Science Daily • Mar. 23, 2026
"Everybody wants this to be resolved," summed up an EU diplomat, saying fellow capitals were "more or less fed up" with the Hungarian leader's behaviour.
From Barron's • Mar. 19, 2026
This is a change from companies’ practice of spreading “peanut-butter raises” more or less evenly across the entire team, he adds.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026
The first scientists appear, as far as their religious beliefs are concerned, to be a more or less random sample of the intellectuals of seventeenth-century Europe.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
