Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

barely

 adverb
     
bare‧ly
1 only with great difficulty or effort [= only just]:
She was very old and barely able to walk.
Mary had barely enough money to live on.
She could barely understand English.
2 almost not [= hardly]:
She was barely aware of his presence.
Joe and his brother are barely on speaking terms.
3 used to emphasize that something happens immediately after a previous action [= only just British English]
Graham had barely finished his coffee when Henry returned.
4 used before amounts or numbers to emphasize that they are surprisingly small [= only]:
Nowadays the village has barely 100 inhabitants.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?
What is the word for picture 1? What is the word for picture 2? What is the word for picture 3? What is the word for picture 4?
Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called.

Explore our topic dictionary

Browse the dictionary