ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Borderline

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Pronunciation /ˈboɹ.dɚˌlaɪn/ · Part of speech adjective

Quick meaning: Borderline is an adjective meaning Nearly; not clearly on one side or the other of a border or boundary, ambiguous.

Meaning

Nearly; not clearly on one side or the other of a border or boundary, ambiguous.

More Meanings

  1. Of questionable taste or acceptability; approaching bad taste.
  2. Exhibiting borderline personality disorder.
  3. Nearly; not entirely but nevertheless to a great extent.
  4. (countable) A boundary or accepted division; a border.
  5. (uncountable) Ellipsis of borderline personality disorder.
  6. (countable) A person who has borderline personality disorder.
  7. (transitive) To border, or border on; to be physically close or conceptually akin to.

Example Sentences

She lives on the borderline between reality and madness.
Your borderline remarks about my aunt’s dress destroyed my evening.
He is borderline hypoglycemic and needs to monitor his sugar intake.
I expected him to be super boring but he was actually borderline funny!

Word Forms

Synonyms for borderline

Depending on context, synonyms include marginal, border, minimal, minimum, delimitation.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include delimitation, minimal, minimum, border, marginal, distinction.

Related Dictionary Tools

Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.