Definition of "marginal" []

• Of, relating to, located at, or constituting a margin, a border, or an edge: the marginal strip of beach; a marginal issue that had no bearing on the election results. (adjective)
• Being adjacent geographically: states marginal to Canada. (adjective)
• Written or printed in the margin of a book: marginal notes. (adjective)
• Barely within a lower standard or limit of quality: marginal writing ability; eked out a marginal existence. (adjective)
• Economics Having to do with enterprises that produce goods or are capable of producing goods at a rate that barely covers production costs. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I think Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, West Virginia -- all those what I call marginal states where the pivotal states you're going to see the kind of fluctuations that we're seeing."
• "European biofuels developers are buying large tracts of what they call "marginal land" in Africa with the aim of cultivating biofuel crops, particularly the woody bush known as jatropha."
• "Prospective buyers, be they another company or a group of investors, hope to win the bid for a company with what we call a marginal difference - meaning, they hope to pay one pound more than their competitors offered."