marginal

1. 1.

   at or constituting a border or edge

   “the marginal strip of beach”

   Synonymsfringy

   Similarperipheral
2. 2.

   of questionable or minimal quality

   “borderline grades”

   “marginal writing ability”

   Synonymsborderline

   Similarminimal
3. 3.

   just barely adequate or within a lower limit

   “a bare majority”

   “a marginal victory”

   Synonymsbare

   Similarnarrow
4. 4.

   producing at a rate that barely covers production costs

   “marginal industries”

   Similarunprofitable

Questions about marginal

What does marginal mean?

marginal means "at or constituting a border or edge". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in marginal?

marginal has 3 syllables: mar-gi-nal. The stress falls on "mar". In IPA it is /ˈmɑɹdʒənəl/.

What is another word for marginal?

Close synonyms include fringy, borderline, bare. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is marginal a common word?

marginal is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.