barely
barely Lexical Profile
barely Game Scores & Validity
• adverb
By the smallest possible margin; only just; almost not.
"The commuters barely caught the last train before the station doors closed."
In a minimal or sparse way; with very little to spare or with minimal furnishings.
"The small studio apartment was barely furnished with a single desk and a mattress."
Word Nuance & Usage
Because 'barely' carries an inherently negative or restrictive meaning, using it alongside another negative word (such as 'couldn't barely') creates a non-standard double negative. It is also frequently misspelled as 'barley' (the cereal grain).
• Rhymes for barely
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English 'bærlice', originally meaning 'openly' or 'plainly', formed from 'bær' (bare) + '-lice' (-ly); the modern restrictive sense of 'scarcely' or 'by a very small margin' developed in the 16th century.