MORE OR LESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does more or less mean? 

• MORE OR LESS (adverb)
  The adverb MORE OR LESS has 2 senses:

1. (of quantities) imprecise but fairly close to correct

2. to a small degree or extent

  Familiarity information: MORE OR LESS used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MORE OR LESS (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(of quantities) imprecise but fairly close to correct

Synonyms:

about; approximately; around; close to; just about; more or less; or so; roughly; some

Context example:

20 or so people were at the party

Sense 2

Meaning:

To a small degree or extent

Synonyms:

more or less; slightly; somewhat

Context example:

the children argued because one slice of cake was slightly larger than the other

 Context examples 

Because Mimas formed more than four billion years ago, scientists would expect its core to have relaxed into a more or less spherical shape by now.

(Saturn Moon May Hide a 'Fossil' Core or an Ocean, NASA)

So what makes a person spend more or less energy?

(Spending more time standing helps increase energy expenditure and combats the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, University of Granada)

We also want to find out whether cells that have experienced one round of anastasis are more or less resilient to a subsequent round.

(Cells Back from Brink of Death, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place.

(Building, NCI Thesaurus)

Drug interactions may cause the drug to be more or less effective, or cause effects on the body that are not expected.

(Drug interaction, NCI Dictionary)

There were several suggestions, more or less happy, but Challenger's was final.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We had left the child in safety, and were tired; so we all slept with more or less reality of sleep.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It is no reflection on you; it is no more than what the greatest admirals have all experienced, more or less, in their time.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

These findings may help researchers determine if humans with certain DNA sequences are more or less susceptible to DNA damage caused by ultraviolet radiation (UVR) or respond to cellular stress differently.

(New regions of the human genome linked to skin color variation in some African populations, National Institutes of Health)

Once every 50 years, more or less, a massive star explodes somewhere in the Milky Way.

(Evidence for supernovas near Earth, NASA)