Margin

How to spell margin

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce margin

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does margin mean?

1. nounThe blank space around the edge of a page, or more generally a border or boundary.
2. nounThe amount of difference, profit, or allowance between two figures or limits.

Margin in a sentence

• She jotted a quick note in the margin of the report.

• The company improved its profit margin by cutting waste.

• The editor asked her to widen the left margin before printing.

• They won the contract by a narrow margin of a few thousand pounds.

Where does margin come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin margo, meaning 'edge', 'border', or 'brink', whose inflected form was marginem. That same root described the rim of anything, from a riverbank to the boundary of a field. English took the word in during the late 1300s, originally to describe the blank border around the written or printed text on a page, where readers would scribble their notes. From that physical edge the sense broadened to cover any boundary or limit, and then to figurative gaps and allowances, as in a margin of error or a profit margin. The everyday adjective 'marginal' and the verb 'to marginalise' both grew out of this same Latin edge, which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the plain -in ending rather than anything fancier.

How the word is built

• marg- (from Latin margo: edge, border)
• -in (from the inflected stem marginem)