roughlyrough‧ly /ˈrʌfli/ ●●● S2 adverb 
There were roughly 200 people there. Azaleas flower at roughly the same time each year.roughly equal/comparable/equivalent two rocks of roughly equal sizeroughly speaking (=used when saying something without giving exact details or information) Roughly speaking, I’d say we need about $500.► see thesaurus at approximate2not gently or carefully: He grabbed her roughly.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- A new kitchen would cost roughly $6,000.
- As long as you know roughly how to do it, that's fine.
- Jill spends roughly four hours a day working on her book.
- Martin makes roughly $150,000 a year.
- She roughly pushed me toward the door.
- The man was roughly my own age.
- Yes, that's roughly the right answer.
- Indeed this is roughly as far as anyone has got.
- Its original alignment was roughly continued towards Castor, however, by a ditched trackway flanked by various enclosure boundaries.
- The back lane, roughly on the line of the original through road, is exactly that.
- The colours were roughly matched for salience in pilot studies with healthy observers.
- The piece is a roughly chiselled block of wood with nails knocked into the arms, chest and face.
- Theophylline is roughly as potent as caffeine; theobromine is seven times weaker than either.
- Under the agreement Mondadori was to be split into roughly equal halves, each worth around US$800 million.
THESAURUS
more or less than a number or amount – used especially in technical or scientific contexts: · The company had total revenues of approximately $2 million.· The disease affects approximately 10% of the adult population.
more or less than a number or amount. ‘About’ is the usual word to use in everyday English: · It costs about $30 to get a visa.· There were about 50 people at the meeting.
about – used when you are trying to give someone a general idea of the size, amount, or number of something: · The two countries are roughly the same size.· Roughly how many miles do you travel a year?
about a number or time – used when you are guessing: · I’ll be there around 5 o’clock.· The BBC broadcasts around 2,000 radio dramas every year.
formal about – used with very large numbers or amounts: · Last year he earned something in the region of $60 million.· It costs somewhere in the region of £100,000 to train a new doctor.
informal about – used after a period of time, a number, or an amount: · The journey takes an hour or so.
formal about – used with dates a long time ago in the past: · The house was built circa 1530.
used after a number or amount, when the total may be a lot more: · A thirty-second commercial can cost £60,000 or more.
more than a number or amount: · The aircraft can carry upwards of 400 passengers.
Longman Language Activatorapproximately correct · Yes, that's roughly the right answer.· As long as you know roughly how to do it, that's fine.
if something is more or less correct, it is good or correct enough to be accepted even if it is not perfect: · What she says is more or less true.· "Did they have what you were looking for at the hardware store?" "Yes, more or less."
informal spoken said when you think something is approximately right or true, but not exactly: · It's kind of circular-shaped, but not exactly.· "Did you finish your homework?" "Well, sort of."
informal if you are in the right ballpark , what you have guessed is not exactly correct, but is close to being correct: · "I'd think a project like this would take at least five years to complete." "Not quite as long as that, but you're in the right ballpark."
approximately a number or amount a little more or a little less than a number, amount, distance, or time: · It should cost about $1500.· The church is about a mile away.· It's been about five years since I've seen Linda.· The chance of men being born colourblind is about 1 in 12.
a little more or a little less than a number, amount, distance, or time. Approximately is a little more formal than about and is used especially in written English: · Approximately 30% of the community is Polish.· Each disk stores approximately 144 pages of text.
approximately - used especially when you are trying to give someone a general idea of the number or amount: · A new kitchen would cost roughly $6,000.· The man was roughly my own age.· There were roughly 50 people there.
: 3 days/a minute/fifteen people etc or so approximately 3 days, a minute etc, or perhaps even more: · The baby usually sleeps for an hour or so after breakfast.· He suggested that I take a week or so off work.· There must be thirty people or so in the class.
informal spoken: a hundred/forty/thirty etc odd use this after numbers in tens, hundreds, or thousands: · "How old do you think he is?'' "Oh, I don't know. Seventy odd.''· It's been 30 odd years since I last saw him.
spoken: give or take a few miles/a couple of minutes/a pound etc use this when saying approximately what a number or amount is, when it may be a few miles more or less, a few minutes more or less etc: · The village is about fifty miles north of here, give or take a few miles.· He's said to be worth $26 million, give or take a few million.· "How long will the meeting last?" "A couple of hours, give or take."
spoken approximately, especially when you do not know the correct number or amount and are guessing what it is: · At a guess, I'd say around 3000 people took part in the demonstration.· It was a cold night. About two or three degrees at a guess.· "How much will it cost?" "A hundred and twenty pounds, at a guess."
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY two rocks of roughly equal size The French ‘baccalauréate’ exam roughly corresponds to English A levels.
two rocks of roughly equal size (=used when saying something without giving exact details or information) Roughly speaking, I’d say we need about $500.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES Roughly speaking, I’d say we need about $500. The French ‘baccalauréate’ exam roughly corresponds to English A levels.· The number of buyers and sellers must be roughly equal before trading begins.
· The new employment terms and conditions will be broadly similar to those currently in place.
· These innovations are, roughly speaking, what this book is about.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE· Despite the different clock speeds, all three offer roughly comparable performance when used to upgrade a 486 system.
· The proportions of managed to tenanted houses has remained roughly constant for the past ten years.· The speed of expansion, after an initial spike, is roughly constant.· As population pressure slackened after 1650 many series stay roughly constant, which conforms with the trend already witnessed in other series.· Overall, there remained a roughly constant difference between the interested and the uninterested.
· The relative status and esteem accorded to husband and wife will be roughly equal.· The computed rates of injection of new NEAs for the two mechanisms are roughly equal.· Under the agreement Mondadori was to be split into roughly equal halves, each worth around US$800 million.· If all questions carry the same maximum marks, your answers should be given roughly equal time.· Granulites are like their textural equivalents, granular igneous rocks, in being mosaics of interlocking crystals of roughly equal size.· The books fell into two roughly equal groups: occult studies and lives of famous and infamous men and women through history.· Gender Unlike many local councils, Basildon has a roughly equal proportion of men and women in its workforce.
· That is roughly equivalent to the gross global product of Earth for the next thirty thousand years.· Consequently, they are roughly equivalent to the transracially adopted children.· Her snack bar was roughly equivalent to a trust fund.· This was roughly equivalent to an investment of 1.25 pence for every unit of electricity ever generated by nuclear power in Britain.· Being told that one must change to survive is roughly equivalent to being told that one will burn in hell.· Wilson aides said the governor thought that roughly equivalent comparisons could be made between schools and districts using different tests.· The rate of withdrawal over natural replenishment is now roughly equivalent to the flow of the Colorado River.
· The village stands along a single street roughly parallel with the river.· After all, the two are roughly parallel.· Two roughly parallel ropes on the ground to jump over.· It runs roughly parallel to the Gotthard railway line.· Running north and roughly parallel to the Twyver is the Horsebere Brook.
· Grouping readers of roughly similar papers together improves the statistical reliability of our results.· Industrial markets are segmented in a roughly similar fashion, but also include consideration of trade groups and end-use. 27.· Today they're flying low over Salisbury Plain, undertaking roughly similar work.
VERB· Roughly chop the pineapple and apricots and quarter the cherries.· Roughly chop the livers and scatter over the duck meat along with the ham.· Roughly chop the watercress and stir into the pan.
· Our own arm bones correspond roughly to the bird wing bones.· These roughly correspond to winter, spring, summer and autumn.· Each number roughly corresponds to a 100°C temperature change, giving a band of 100-600°C.
· In the third and fourth years, the work is divided roughly equally between Astronomy and Physics.· This interaction can be roughly divided into teacher-student and student-teacher interaction.
· This roughly doubled the number of known and treated hypertensives in the practice.· Company sales rose 15 percent last year and have roughly doubled every five years.· This roughly doubles the number of young from a spawning.· Candidates who follow the limits could receive roughly double that amount from each donor.· In the last two decades world production of electricity has roughly doubled, with the developing nations pulling towards overtaking the developed.· Allow the dough to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, until it has roughly doubled in size.· A techie's delight. 6 SuperStar Pro claims to roughly double the capacity of your hard disk.· Summers and Clark also discovered that unemployment insurance roughly doubles the number of people who stay unemployed for more than three months.
· However, it appears from Thomson's calculations that the shares of the elderly and the non-elderly have remained roughly stable.· The proportions of managed to tenanted houses has remained roughly constant for the past ten years.· The two pronuclei remain roughly in step, but each takes its own time.· Homeothermy or Homoiothermy Temperature regulation in tachymetabolic species in which core temperatures remain roughly steady despite ambient temperature changes.
· The plane again runs roughly from top left to bottom right.· Ads run roughly $ 200, 000 per 30-second spot.· The argument will run roughly as follows.· The bigger rivers on the plains run roughly west to east.· Suspecting a fuel problem the pilot selected his reserve tanks but the engine continued to run roughly.· The dividing line between them runs roughly from the Caspian to the mouth of the Indus.· An inductivist account might run roughly as follows.· It runs roughly parallel to the Gotthard railway line.
· The Upper Bound: Roughly speaking this is the unique local minimum of the gradient of the graph.· Then he spoke roughly once more, shoved the teeth deeper into his pocket and shook his fist at her.
· To the uninitiated that roughly translates as a drinking establishment with thumping rock music and brash videos crammed with hordes of fun-seekers.
WORD FAMILYnounroughthe roughroughageroughnessverbroughroughenadverbroughroughlyadjectiverough
1not exactly SYN about, approximately: There were roughly 200 people there. Azaleas flower at roughly the same time each year.roughly equal/comparable/equivalent two rocks of roughly equal sizeroughly speaking (=used when saying something without giving exact details or information) Roughly speaking, I’d say we need about $500.► see thesaurus at approximate2not gently or carefully: He grabbed her roughly.