Borderline

How to spell borderline

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce borderline

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does borderline mean?

1. adjectiveOnly just within or barely failing to meet a given standard, category, or limit.
2. nounA line marking a boundary, especially between two countries or regions.

Borderline in a sentence

• adjective

  Her exam result was borderline, falling just short of a clear pass.

• noun

  The fence runs along the borderline between the two farms.

• adjective

  The loan application was a borderline case that the manager reviewed personally.

• noun

  The river forms a natural borderline separating the two counties.

Where does borderline come from?

Language of origin: French

This is a transparent compound of the two ordinary English words 'border' and 'line', joined to name the line that marks a border. 'Border' came into English in the 1300s from Old French 'bordure', meaning an edge or hem, which in turn traces back to a Frankish word of Germanic origin related to the idea of a board or side. 'Line' descends from Latin 'linea', a thread or string of flax, by way of Old English and Old French. The literal compound, a line dividing two territories, was in use by the late 1500s, and the figurative sense, something sitting right on the edge between two categories, grew in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The medical and psychological use, as in a borderline condition, is a modern extension of that same 'on the boundary' image. Because both halves are common words spelled exactly as they sound, the only real trap is remembering it is written as a single solid word.

How the word is built

• border (edge, boundary)
• line (a marked division)