Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin marginālis, equivalent to margin +‎ -al.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑː.d͡ʒɪ.nəl/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑɹ.d͡ʒɪ.nəl/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmɐː.d͡ʒɪ.nəl/

  • Audio (Queensland):

    (file)

marginal (not generally comparable, comparative more marginal, superlative most marginal)

1. (not comparable) Of, relating to, or located at or near a margin or edge; also figurative usages of location and margin (edge).

   The marginal area at the edge of the salt-marsh has its own plants.

   In recent years there has been an increase in violence against marginal groups.

   1. Written in the margin of a book.

      There were more marginal notes than text.

      • 1999, R. I. Page, Introduction to English Runes, Boydell Press, page 198:

        The early pages had marginal notes most of which were lost when rats nibbled away the manuscript edges.

   2. (geography) Sharing a border; geographically adjacent.

      Monmouthshire is a Welsh county marginal to England.

2. (comparable) Determined by a small margin; having a salient characteristic determined by a small margin.
   1. Of a value, or having a characteristic that is of a value, that is close to being unacceptable or leading to exclusion from a group or category.

      His writing ability was marginal at best.

      Having reviewed the test, there are two students below the required standard and three more who are marginal.

      The pilots lacked experience flying in marginal weather conditions.

   2. (of land) Barely productive.

      He farmed his marginal land with difficulty.

   3. (politics, chiefly UK, Australia, New Zealand, of a constituency) Subject to a change in sitting member with only a small change in voting behaviour, this usually being inferred from the small winning margin of the previous election.

      In Bristol West, Labour had a majority of only 1,000, so the seat is considered highly marginal this time around.

      • 2002, Andrew Geddes, Jonathan Tonge, Labour′s Second Landslide: The British General Election 2001, page 79:

        In ‘battleground’ seats with the Conservatives, Liberal Democrat vote shares increased most in the most marginal seats.

      • 2007, Robert Waller, Byron Criddle, The Almanac of British Politics, page 58:

        In Outer London, Harrow East is now a more marginal Labour hold than Harrow West.

      • 2010, Nick Economou, Zareh Ghazarian, Australian Politics For Dummies, unnumbered page:

        The pendulum lists the seats from least marginal to most marginal for the government on one side, and least marginal to most marginal for the opposition on the other side.

      • 2021 December 1, “Network News: Integrated Rail Plan: Osborne predicts HS2 eastern leg will return”, in RAIL, number 945, page 8:

        He justified his comment by noting that the Labour Party had quickly committed to delivering a high-speed Leeds-Manchester line, and argued that pressure would grow on the Government because there were several marginal parliamentary seats around Leeds and Bradford.

3. (economics, not comparable) Pertaining to changes resulting from a unit increase in production or consumption of a good.
4. (sociology) Marginalized.
   • 1990 February 4, Margy Dowzer, Mary Frances Platt, Aviva Shmuckler, “Disability And Accessibility Cost Money!”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 13:

     The caseworker couldn't understand how I could have stretched out my last bit of money for so long. She seemed convinced that I was "hiding" income from her and interrogated me for I don't know how long. […] The system seems based on the assumption that people are "welfare cheats." If you don't speak English or are marginal in some other way, it's worse.

• margin
• marginalia

marginal (plural marginals)

1. Something or somebody that is marginal.
   • 1990, Elizabeth B. Lee, Sociology For People: A Caring Profession, page 110:

     […] discusses those who belong to the discipline's dominant cults, the mainliners, and their relations with the marginals and mavericks.

   • 2013 August 29, Clifford D. Simak, Project Pope‎^[1], Hachette UK, →ISBN, →OCLC:

     “We need a saint or some other symbol that will serve to anchor our faith into the foreseeable future. I have watched and waited for a saint but none showed up—not even a marginal saint. Mary is the first one, and we must not allow her ...

2. (politics) A constituency won with a small margin.

• alarming

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [mər.ʒiˈnal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [maɾ.d͡ʒiˈnal]

• Audio (Barcelona):

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marginal m or f (masculine and feminine plural marginals)

1. marginal
   • 2016 December, “Alep: La batalla que va decidir el curs de la guerra a Síria”, in El Periódico‎^[2]:

     Ara, els EUA juguen un paper marginal en el conflicte.

     Now, the US plays a marginal role in the conflict.

• marge

• “marginal”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin marginālis, from Latin margō (whence marge).

• IPA^(key): /maʁ.ʒi.nal/

• Audio:

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• Audio:

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• Homophones: marginale, marginales

marginal (feminine marginale, masculine plural marginaux, feminine plural marginales)

1. marginal (written in the margin of a book)
2. (relational) margin, edge, marginal

   coût marginal ― marginal cost

3. fringe, fringy (outside the mainstream)
4. secondary (of lesser importance)

• → Turkish: marjinal

marginal m (plural marginaux)

1. dropout, misfit (person that chooses to live on the fringes of society)

   Near-synonyms: reclus, asocial

• “marginal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːl

marginal (strong nominative masculine singular marginaler, not comparable)

1. marginal

• “marginal” in Duden online
• “marginal” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

From Latin marginalis.

marginal (neuter singular marginalt, definite singular and plural marginale)

1. marginal

• “marginal” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin marginalis.

marginal (neuter singular marginalt, definite singular and plural marginale)

1. marginal

• “marginal” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin marginālis.

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: mar‧gi‧nal

marginal m or f (plural marginais)

1. marginal (of, relating to, or located at a margin or an edge)
2. outlaw, criminal (a person who operates outside established norms)

   Synonyms: delinquente, desviante

3. (economics) marginal

• marginalmente

• margem

marginal f (plural marginais)

1. a coastal avenue

marginal m or f by sense (plural marginais)

1. outlaw, criminal (a person who operates outside established norms)

   Synonym: delinquente

   Aquele menino é um marginal!

   That boy is a criminal!

• “marginal”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “marginal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from French marginal. By surface analysis, margine +‎ -al.

marginal m or n (feminine singular marginală, masculine plural marginali, feminine/neuter plural marginale)

1. marginal

• IPA^(key): /maɾxiˈnal/ [maɾ.xiˈnal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: mar‧gi‧nal

marginal m or f (masculine and feminine plural marginales)

1. marginal

• “marginal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

marginal c

1. a margin

• marginalisera
• marginell

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