Marginal

Definitions: Marginal

Marginal

Adjective

1. At or constituting a border or edge; "the marginal strip of beach".

2. Of questionable or minimal quality; "borderline grades"; "marginal writing ability".

3. Of a bare living gained by great labor; "the sharecropper's hardscrabble life"; "a marginal existence".

4. Just barely adequate or within a lower limit; "a bare majority"; "a marginal victory".

5. Producing at a rate that barely covers production costs; "marginal industries"; "marginal land".

Date "marginal" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1644. (references)

Etymology: Marginal \Mar"gin*al\, adjective. [Compare to the French expression marginal.]. (Websters 1913)

Domain	Definitions
Computing	Marginal adj. [common] 1. [techspeak] An extremely small change. "A marginal increase in core can decrease GC time drastically." In everyday terms, this means that it is a lot easier to clean off your desk if you have a spare place to put some of the junk while you sort through it. 2. Of little merit. "This proposed new feature seems rather marginal to me." 3. Of extremely small probability of winning. "The power supply was rather marginal anyway; no wonder it fried.". Source: Jargon File.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Marginal

Synonyms: bare(a) (adj), borderline (adj), edge(a) (adj), fringe(a) (adj), fringy (adj), hardscrabble (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Edge	Adjective: border, marginal, skirting; labial, labiated, marginated.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	Planets in this area have marginal capabilities. (The Transformers: The Movie; writing credit: Ron Friedman)
Movie/TV Titles	O Marginal (1974) Um S Marginal (1983) Le Marginal (1983)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Marginal Sights: Staging the Chinese in America (Studies in Theatre History and Culture) (reference) Some Branch Against the Sky: The Practice and Principles of Marginal Gardening (reference) The Judge and the Historian: Marginal Notes on a Late-Twentieth-Century Miscarriage of Justice (reference) The Real West Marginal Way: A Poet's Autobiography (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Marginal Street (reference) Morricone-Belmondo: Le Marginal (1983 Film) / Le Professionel (1981 Film) / Le Casse (1972 Film) [3 on 1] [SOUNDTRACK] (reference) Music of Marginal Polynesia (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	The marginal ice zone (MIZ).Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth.		Sunset over sea ice at the marginal ice zone as NATHANIEL B. PALMER headed south.Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth.
	Marginal condition pastureland in Adams County is being restored to its natural wetland environment through the Wetlands Reserve Program.Credit: Scott Henderson.		Fortsatt sanka marginal skatten! : Folkpartiet.Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Thus, increased intakes of specific sources of calcium might induce iron deficiency in individuals with marginal iron status. (references)
		Because the remaining mutations are rare, expanding the panel of screened mutations is expected to achieve only marginal gains in sensitivity. (references)
		Adjuvant therapy decisions are complicated by marginal differences in treatment results and risk-benefit profiles, balancing acute effects with long-term outcomes. (references)
Business		Though the program is controversial, some marginal progress is expected in easing some of these distortions. (references)
		There is voluntary help too, and it is growing, but it still plays only a marginal role in the care of the elderly. (references)
		Small and medium industries are in a disadvantageous position with higher marginal costs than those of large industries. (references)
Civil Liberties	Poland	The TVN also was the first station to launch a 24-hour news channel, TVN 24. The new broadcasting company, Catholic TV, is considered to present a far-right, conservative point of view, although the impact is marginal and viewership is below 1 percent. (references)
Economic History	Austria	Direct imports from the U.S. are marginal. (references)
	Botswana	For the year 1999-2000, the maximum marginal rate of income tax remains at 25 percent. (references)
Human Rights	Uganda	Progress has been marginal. (references)
Indigenous People	Bangladesh	Tribal people have had a marginal ability to influence decisions concerning the use of their lands. (references)
	Chile	In practice, the ability of indigenous people to participate in governmental decisions affecting their lands, cultures, traditions, and the allocation of natural resources is marginal. (references)
Minorities	Poland	Sporadic and isolated incidents of harassment and violence against Jews continued to occur, often generated by skinheads and other marginal societal groups. (references)
	Slovak Republic	On March 14, a marginal nationalist party, Slovak National Unity (SNU), held a rally to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the wartime Slovak state. (references)
	Poland	Relations between the various religious communities are generally amicable; sporadic incidents of harassment and violence against Jews and occasional desecration of Jewish, and more often, Catholic cemeteries continued, mostly generated by skinheads and other marginal elements of society. (references)
Political Economy	SWEDEN	The maximum marginal income tax rate on individuals is 56.7 percent. (references)
	BELGIUM	Tax policies: The top marginal rate on wage and salary income is 55 percent. (references)
	PANAMA	The restrictive Panamanian Labor Code was revised in 1995, though strong opposition allowed only marginal reform. (references)
Trade	Eritrea	For taxes on personal income, rental income, and unincorporated business income, it proposes a five-rate structure, with a top marginal rate of 30 percent. (references)
	Morocco	The loan aims to support the government's efforts that build on the legal and institutional foundations already established, and aim to : (a) develop a modern Information Infrastructure Sector throughout the country; (b) expand telecommunications, postal, and information technology services beyond the market to marginal urban and rural populations; and (c) fosters the use of IT applications to improve private sector competitiveness, public sector efficiency and provision of social services to citizens by either public or private providers. (references)
Worker Rights	Colombia	Many marginal, usually family-run, mining operations employ young children as a way to boost production and income. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Marginal" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.68% of the time. "Marginal" is used about 2,159 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	99.68%	2,152	4,059
Noun (proper)	0.32%	7	133,076
Total	100.00%	2,159	N/A

Expressions using "marginal": hardscrabble marginal ♦ Marginal Adaptation (Dentistry) ♦ marginal call ♦ marginal cost ♦ marginal cost of production ♦ marginal data ♦ marginal groove ♦ marginal Hacks ♦ marginal information ♦ marginal land ♦ marginal note ♦ marginal placentation ♦ marginal price ♦ marginal propensity to consume ♦ marginal punched cards ♦ marginal revenue ♦ marginal tax ♦ marginal tax rate ♦ marginal utility ♦ marginal wood fern. Additional references.
Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "marginal": intra-marginal, non-marginal, price-marginal.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "marginal"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		kufitar (boundary, conterminous, limit, terminal), i shkuar anës faqes, i pakët (exiguous, few, lean, limited, little, low, meager, meagre, measly, modest, narrow, picayune, poor, scant, scanty, scarce, scrimpy, skimpy, slender, small, spare, sparing, thin, wee), i padobishëm (bootless, de trop, fruitless, good for nothing, ineffective, ineffectual, inutile, kill time, naught, needless, ne'er do well, no earthly use, nugatory, otiose, riffraff, useless), anësor (collateral, fringe, lateral, peripheral, secondary, side, sidelong, sideways, wing, winger). (various references)

Arabic		‏هامشي (misfit, peripheral), ‏قريب من الحد الأدنى, ‏حافي واقع على حافة الشىء, ‏حافي (on the hoof), ‏تخمي, ‏ثانوي (bye, inferior, insignificant, minor, petty, secondary, side, sub, unimportant). (various references)

Bulgarian		страничен (adventitious, adventive, aisle, by, circumstantial, collateral, exterior, external, incidental, indirect, lateral, oblique, off, outside, postern, side), труден за обработване (stubborn), краен (completive, distal, dizzy, end, endmost, eventual, extreme, final, high, intense, intolerant, latter, out-, outside, profuse, rabid, red-hot, sublime, supreme, terminal, terminative, terrible, ultimate, unmerciful, utmost, utter, uttermost, veriest, wild-eyed), който е на ръба, недоходен (lean, unprofitable, unremunerative), написан на полето, маргинален, пределен (overall, terminal, terminative, utmost), периферен (circumferential, peripheral, suburban, tangential). (various references)

Chinese		边际 (margin), 邊緣 (borderline, brink, edge, fringe, periphery, verge), 界限 (boundary). (various references)

Czech		okrajový (peripheral, secondary). (various references)

Danish		marginal (apostil, foot-note, marginal note, postscript, recommendatory note). (various references)

Dutch		marginaal. (various references)

Farsi		کم (Infrequent, Junior, Light, Little, Low, Rare, Remote, Scant, Scanty, Scarce, Scrimpy, Skimp, Slender, Slight, Small), وابسته به حاشیه , حاشیه ای . (various references)

Finnish		marginaalinen, reuna-, raja-. (various references)

French		marginal. (various references)

German		Rand-. (various references)

Greek		περιθωριακόσ (fringe, peripheral), του περιθωρείου, οριακόσ. (various references)

Hebrew		שולי (peripheral). (various references)

Hungarian		lapszéli. (various references)

Indonesian		tipis (sheer, thin). (various references)

Italian		marginale (borderline, by, ornamental, peripheral, tangential). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		限界効�"� (marginal utility), マーケティング戦略 (mage, mah-jongg, margin, marginal cost, marginal man, marjoram, marketing strategy, Marshall, Marshall Plan, merge), 標註 (marginal notations), 余白注 (glosses, marginal notes), 差益 (marginal profits), 傍註 (marginal notes), 傍�" (marginal notes). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		マージナルマン (marginal man), マージナルコスト (marginal cost), ひょうちゅう (annotation, commentary, ice pillar, icicle, marginal notations, notes and comments), ぼうく�" (despot, marginal notes, one's deceased lord, tyrant), ぼうちゅう (busyness, gloss, marginal notes, pesticide, side notes, within a room), さえき (marginal profits), よはくちゅう (glosses, marginal notes), �'�"かい�"うよう (marginal utility). (various references)

Korean		가장자리 (Brink, Edge, selvage, selvedge, Verge). (various references)

Manx		oirragh (drill). (various references)

Pig Latin		arginalmay

Portuguese		marginal (declassed, marginal price, riparian, river, riverain, riverine), beirar (approach, be on the verge of, on edge, skirt). (various references)

Romanian		marginal, periferic (outer, outlying, peripheral, peripherally, secondary). (various references)

Russian		краевой. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		marginalni, uzgredan (accessary, accessory, casual, incidental), krajnji (crass, externally, extreme, furthermost, last, outermost, terminal, ultimate, ultra, utmost, uttermost). (various references)

Spanish		marginal. (various references)

Swedish		marginell, marginal-. (various references)

Turkish		marjinal, sınırdaki (borderline), kenarda olan, değeri düşük. (various references)

Ukranian		крайній (bottom, dire, extreme, extremistic, hindmost, out, outside, ultimate, utmost, uttermost), написаний на полях. (various references)

Vietnamese		ở mép, ở lề sát giới hạn khó tr�"ng trọt, ở bờ. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "marginal": marginalia, marginalities, marginality, marginalization, marginalizations, marginalize, marginalized, marginalizes, marginalizing, marginally. (additional references)
	Words ending with "marginal": intermarginal, submarginal. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Marginal" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: amyrgian, argina, baginal, Magginas, maginal, Maguina, Margadale, Marghita, margial, Margiani, marginale, Mariental, Marignola, Marsinah, Merignac, Morganae, Nergina, Norgyal. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "marginal" (pronounced mÄ"rjunul)
5	-j u n u l	aboriginal, original, regional, superregional, virginal.
4	-u n u l	abdominal, aberrational, additional, Arsenal, attitudinal, binational, biphenyl, cantonal, Cardinal, coeducational, collisional, compositional, computational, concessional, conditional, confessional, conformational, confrontational, congregational, congressional, connotational, constitutional, conventional, conversational, correctional, criminal, delusional, denominational, depositional, devotional, diagonal, dimensional, directional, divisional, doctrinal, duodenal, dysfunctional, educational, emotional, erosional, exceptional, factional, fictional, fluxional, foundational, fractional, functional, gastrointestinal, generational, gravitational, hexagonal, impersonal, improvisational, informational, inspirational, institutional, instructional, intentional, intergenerational, international, interpersonal, intestinal, investigational, Invitational, irrational, jurisdictional, juvenile, latitudinal, longitudinal, luminal, medicinal, motivational, multinational, national, navigational, nominal, noncriminal, nonprofessional, nontraditional, nutritional, obsessional, occasional, occupational, octagonal, operational, optional, organizational, personal, phenomenal, polygonal, processional, professional, promotional, proportional, provisional, rational, recreational, relational, representational, retinal, rotational, seasonal, sectional, seminal, sensational, sentinel, situational, subliminal, supranational, terminal, traditional, transformational, transitional, transnational, unconditional, unconstitutional, unconventional, unemotional, unintentional, unprofessional, untraditional, vocational.
3	-n u l	adrenal, anal, annal, annul, atonal, autumnal, carnal, channel, Colonel, communal, cornel, Darnel, departmental, diurnal, empanel, eternal, external, faunal, fennel, final, flannel, fraternal, funnel, hormonal, Hymnal, impanel, infernal, internal, journal, kennel, kernel, maternal, monoclonal, monsoonal, morainal, nocturnal, panel, paternal, penal, polyvinyl, renal, semifinal, shrapnel, signal, spinal, tonal, tribunal, tunnel, vaginal, venal, vernal, Vinal, vinyl.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: alarming.
	Words within the letters "a-a-g-i-l-m-n-r"
	-1 letter: laminar, marling.
	-2 letters: agnail, airman, animal, argali, arming, lamina, laming, lingam, magian, malign, manila, margin, marina, marlin, narial, raglan, ragman.
	-3 letters: again, agria, alang, alarm, algin, align, amain, amiga, amnia, anima, argal, argil, gamin, garni, glair, gnarl, graal, grail, grain, grama, grana, inarm, laari, lagan, lamia, lanai, liana, liang, ligan, liman, linga, malar.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-g-i-l-m-n-r"
	+1 letter: alaruming.
	+2 letters: airmailing, alarmingly, managerial, marginalia, marginally, marshaling, martingale, organismal.
	+3 letters: hallmarking, imaginarily, madrigalian, maltreating, marginality, marginalize, marshalling, martingales, migrational, submarginal.
	+4 letters: ameliorating, caramelising, caramelizing, managerially, marginalized, marginalizes, premalignant.
	+5 letters: agglomerating, agglomeration, agronomically, antilogarithm, cholangiogram, familiarising, familiarizing, fragmentarily, galvanometric, gastronomical, glamorization, immigrational, intermarginal, marginalities, marginalizing, materialising, materializing, matriculating, mineralogical, nonmanagerial, oleomargarine, perambulating, ungrammatical.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

4D 61 72 67 69 6E 61 6C

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

⁼

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

-- .- .-. --. .. -. .- .-..

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01001101 01100001 01110010 01100111 01101001 01101110 01100001 01101100

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#77 &#97 &#114 &#103 &#105 &#110 &#97 &#108

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

004D 0061 0072 0067 0069 006E 0061 006C

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
marginal tax rate	43	degeneration marginal pellucid	5
marginal cost	26	custo marginal	5
marginal	22	labor marginal product	5
marginal way	20	marginal product	5
locational marginal pricing	16	benefit marginal	5
marginal placenta previa	16	diminishing marginal utility	5
marginal utility	16	house marginal way	5
marginal revenue	12	marginal previa	5
distribution marginal	11	diminishing law marginal return	4
marginal costing	10	marginal tax bracket	4
consume marginal propensity	10	marginal zone lymphoma	4
marginal utilidad	10	ingreso marginal	4
costo marginal	9	marginal propensity save	4
marginal placenta	9	absorption costing marginal	4
maine marginal way	9	marginal rate substitution	4
capital cost marginal	9	maine marginal ogunquit way	4
marginal ogunquit way	7	marginal plant pond	4
de marginal sustitucion tasa	7	calvinisme marginal	4
diminishing law marginal utility	6	marginal product revenue	3
2003 marginal rate tax	5	marginal plant	3
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Marginal

Definitions: Marginal

Marginal

Adjective

Specialty Definitions: Marginal

Synonyms: Marginal

Synonyms within Context: Marginal

Edge

Crosswords: Marginal

Modern Usage: Marginal

Screenplays

Movie/TV Titles

Commercial Usage: Marginal

Books

Music

Photo Album: Marginal

Non-Fiction Usage: Marginal

Usage Frequency: Marginal

Expressions: Marginal

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Marginal

marginal tax rate

degeneration marginal pellucid

marginal cost

custo marginal

marginal

labor marginal product

marginal way

marginal product

locational marginal pricing

benefit marginal

marginal placenta previa

diminishing marginal utility

marginal utility

house marginal way

marginal revenue

marginal previa

distribution marginal

diminishing law marginal return

marginal costing

marginal tax bracket

consume marginal propensity

marginal zone lymphoma

marginal utilidad

ingreso marginal

costo marginal

marginal propensity save

marginal placenta

absorption costing marginal

maine marginal way

marginal rate substitution

capital cost marginal

maine marginal ogunquit way

marginal ogunquit way

marginal plant pond

de marginal sustitucion tasa

calvinisme marginal

diminishing law marginal utility

marginal product revenue

2003 marginal rate tax

marginal plant

Modern Translations: Marginal

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Chinese

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Farsi

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hungarian

Indonesian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Korean