borderline
adjective · adverb · noun · verb
Simple meaning
Of questionable taste or acceptability.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bawrderlynSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɔɹdɚlaɪn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Nearly; not clearly on one side or the other of a border or boundary, ambiguous.
Of questionable taste or acceptability; approaching bad taste.
Exhibiting borderline personality disorder.
adverb
Nearly; not entirely but nevertheless to a great extent.
noun
countable
A boundary or accepted division; a border.
uncountable
Behavior that borders both neurosis and psychosis.
countable
A person who has borderline personality disorder.
verb
transitive
To border, or border on; to be physically close or conceptually akin to.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Nearly; not clearly on one side or the other of a border or boundary, ambiguous.
Used this way, borderline is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It quietly approves while staying precise.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Clear and precise
- Usage feel
- Precise and approving
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Exhibiting / borderline
Behavior
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The minimal IQ required for someone to function normally and independently in the world (without some form of institutional assistance).
Schizophrenia characterized by mild symptoms or by some preexisting tendency to schizophrenia.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.