Marginal
Here’s a good word to know: marginal. People don’t seem to know if it means “a lot” or “a little”. In fact, I got so confused by people using this word I had to look it up. You see, people in my world are always saying “oh, that’s showing marginal improvement.” Sometimes the tone of their voice suggest it means a lot of improvement. Other times it seems they want it to mean a little improvement. So which is it? The answer is: a little.
Think about it like a piece of paper. The margins are the little bits on the sides. So if you improve marginally, that means you aren’t improving in the big part. Here’s some examples from google’s define function:
- To win by a little bit is a “marginal victory”.
- To be at the lower limit of performance is to say that you have “marginal abilities”.
- To be in a business that just barely covers its production costs is to be in a “marginal industry”.
I think people misuse this term a lot because it has so many synonyms, so be careful. In fact, I would advise you use it sparingly.
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