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
“I’ve known Steve for 40 years, and he’s been with me, more or less, one way or the other, every step of the way,” Trump said at Witkoff’s Oval Office swearing-in, in May 2025.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 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
Stetler, 45, has more or less made peace with the tension.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
I found a more or less flat place, a shelf, on the hillside a few yards up.
From "Z for Zachariah" by Robert C. O’Brien
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.
