ROUGHLY Synonyms: 91 Similar and Opposite Words

roughly

adverb

ˈrə-flē

Definition of roughly

as in approximately

close to but not exactly roughly 80% of the country's population is of that faith

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in severely

in a manner so as to cause loss or suffering if you treat the machine roughly, it will of course break

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of roughly Buyers can opt for the smaller inner tent, which takes up roughly half the floor area of the outer tent, securing into place to sleep five people. — New Atlas, 25 Oct. 2026 Any updates to the full-year guide (roughly $2 billion) are also welcome, along with commentary on 2027 expectations. — Kevin Stankiewicz,zev Fima, CNBC, 25 Oct. 2026 But that requires roughly $7,000 a month for utilities, mortgage, car payments and groceries, along with the two water leaks. — Jesse Bedayn, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2026 At +112, Tennessee needs to win roughly 47% of the time to justify the price. — Dan Zaksheske Outkick, FOXNews.com, 25 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for roughly

Recent Examples of Synonyms for roughly

Adverb

The chart shared by NASA showed Orion docking with the Blue Moon lander in an elliptical lunar orbit, approximately 8,500 km above the Moon’s surface.

— Eric Berger, ArsTechnica, 23 Oct. 2026
Even as the sense of a hazy disturbance in the force lingers, Burkholder’s approximately three-minute statement at least demystified some of the curious situation.

— Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of approximately

Adverb

Fetal personhood would also likely eliminate, or at a minimum severely restrict, people who seek to start a family using surrogacy and in vitro fertilization.

— Jim Defede, Miami Herald, 26 Oct. 2026
Torosian had told the prosecutor’s office that an undernourished, severely disabled girl who was receiving treatment at BioMed was subsisting entirely on spinach—on Kotthaus’s orders.

— D. T. Max, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026

Definition of severely

Adverb

Baltzor and her husband Keith, had just finished riding a bunch of about 150 hundred head of their cattle down Highway 205 on horseback from another pasture.

— Anna King, NPR, 25 Oct. 2026
Thanks to a demolition crew’s early Saturday morning implosion, an 18-story office tower that has hung over Clairmont Road in Chamblee for about five decades has been reduced to rubble.

— Savannah Sicurella, AJC.com, 24 Oct. 2026

Definition of about

Adverb

That decision by the president was praised by Putin but criticized harshly by members of Congress, including some Republicans.

— Jennifer Jacobs, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026
Stewart was an executive producer of his friend Colbert’s show and harshly criticized the cancellation, rejecting Paramount’s financial justification and accusing the company of bending the knee to the president.

— Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of harshly

Adverb

The venue this time around was an equally airy, heavenly, pale-toned 19th-century apartment in Paris’s ninth arrondissement, a bread roll’s throw away from the original Rose Bakery.

— Mark Holgate, Vogue, 26 Oct. 2026
Unlike the initial push to spread money around to bet on would-be AI winners, there is not enough to go around at this stage.

— Zev Fima, CNBC, 26 Oct. 2026

Definition of around

Adverb

The summer had seen Europe endure an oppressively dry, hot summer, which had seen wildfires spring up across the continent.

— Anthony Wood, Space.com, 26 Aug. 2026
After a bit of a reprieve from an oppressively hot summer, another heat wave is set to scorch Southern California this week.

— Grace Toohey, Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of oppressively

Adverb

With nearly 60 murders per day, South Africa has one of the world's highest crime rates, and several of Cape Town's townships are among the areas hardest hit by violent crime.

— Julie Bourdin, NPR, 25 Oct. 2026
Eisenkot believes Netanyahu has purposefully made that process harder.

— Eric Cortellessa, Time, 25 Oct. 2026

Definition of hard

Browse Nearby Words

rough it

roughly

roughneck

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Roughly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/roughly. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of roughly

adverb

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

milieu

Popular in Grammar & Usage

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Popular in Wordplay

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE

Popular

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Games & Quizzes