marginal adj

1 at or constituting a border or edge; "the marginal strip of beach" [syn: fringy]

2 of questionable or minimal quality; "borderline grades"; "marginal writing ability" [syn: borderline]

3 of a bare living gained by great labor; "the sharecropper's hardscrabble life"; "a marginal existence" [syn: hardscrabble]

4 just barely adequate or within a lower limit; "a bare majority"; "a marginal victory" [syn: bare(a)]

5 producing at a rate that barely covers production costs; "marginal industries"; "marginal land"

6 of something or someone close to a lower limit or lower class; "marginal abilities"

English

Pronunciation

• a UK /ˈmɑː(ɹ)ˌdʒɪn.əl/ /"mA:(r)%dZIn.@l/

Adjective

1. of, relating to, or located at a margin or an edge
   • The marginal area at the edge of the salt-marsh has its own plants
2. geographically adjacent
   • Monmouthshire is a Welsh county marginal to England
3. written in the margin of a book
   • There were more marginal notes than text
4. at the lower extent of a standard
   • His writing ability was marginal at best
5. of land that is barely productive
   • He farmed his marginal land with difficulty
6. In the context of "mostly|UK|Australia": of an electoral district (such as a parliamentary constituency) where the winning margin was a small proportion of the total number of votes, so that only a small change in voting behaviour is necessary to alter the outcome of an election.
   • In Bristol West, Labour had a majority of only 1,000 so is highly marginal this time

Related terms

• margin

Translations

• Spanish: marginal

Anagrams

• alarming

The word marginal can refer to several things:

• For marginal probability in probability theory, see Conditional probability
• For marginal model in hierarchical linear modeling, see Marginal model
• For marginal observables in physics, see Renormalization group
• For marginal constituency in politics, see Constituency
• For marginal utility/cost/revenue in economics, see Marginalism
• For marginal person in sociology, see Marginalization

bordering, borderline, boundary, bounding, coastal, determinant, determinative, determining, disputable, doubtful, dubious, extreme, fringing, frontier, inferior, infinitesimal, insignificant, limbic, liminal, limit, limiting, littoral, low-priority, minimal, negligible, no great shakes, of no account, of no consequence, of no matter, of no significance, on the edge, questionable, rimming, secondary, skirting, slight, small, terminal, threshold, tiny, unimportant