barely outperforming

USAGE SUMMARY

The phrase "barely outperforming" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a situation where something is performing slightly better than another, but not by a significant margin. Example: "The new model is barely outperforming its predecessor in terms of efficiency."

✓ Grammatically correct

News & Media

Science

Human-verified examples from authoritative sources

Exact Expressions

2 human-written examples

On a total day basis, OWN is barely outperforming the channel it replaced, Discovery Health, despite hundreds of million of dollars of investment.

The New York Times

During the five-year period ended Dec. 31, 2005, two of the funds gained 1.26percentand1.38percentcent, barely outperforming the 0.54percentt return of the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.

The New York Times

Human-verified similar examples from authoritative sources

Similar Expressions

58 human-written examples

In fact, most barely outperformed complete amateurs.

Forbes

As the chart below shows, Disney's shares barely outperformed the S&P 500 over that time.

Forbes

At the same level of link-prediction error, and despite a higher budget, (text {OAS}_{text {tg}}) barely outperforms random-seeding performance.

Computational Social Networks

The Heat so barely outperformed the Spurs to win the NBA Finals, one cannot attribute a single reason to explain this small difference.

Huffington Post

Still in the race are Carly Fiorina, who barely outperformed Santorum, and John Kasich, Chris Christie, and Jeb Bush, who are hoping that they can prove their viability as candidates in New Hampshire.

Vice

However, the newly developed combined models did use training and testing sets and barely outperformed the aforementioned predictors, which suggests that not much more prognostic powers are to be had by including hundreds of signatures beyond the powers contained within a well developed individual signature when combined with the clinical variables.

BMC Medical Genomics

What's more, the single fund that did manage to outperform just barely accomplished this feat, while the three funds that underperformed did so by greater amounts.

Huffington Post

Half a century ago little information was available and clients barely knew whether their fund manager was outperforming his peers.

The Economist

With year-over-year comp store gains of 2%, Lane Bryant is barely keeping even with inflation but still it is outperforming nearly every specialty retail sector, including the other divisions at Charming Shoppes ( $1.98 billion revenue for the fiscal year ended Jan . 31.

Forbes

Expert writing Tips

Best practice

Combine "barely outperforming" with quantitative data to demonstrate the margin of difference. Numbers will help ground the statement and provide more verifiable insights to the audience.

Common error

Avoid using "barely outperforming" when the difference in performance is negligible or statistically insignificant. This can mislead readers into thinking there's a meaningful advantage when there isn't.

Linguistic Context

The phrase "barely outperforming" functions as a verb phrase, specifically a present participle phrase used to describe an action that is occurring to a small degree. As confirmed by Ludwig AI, this phrase is grammatically correct and can be used in written English.

Expression frequency: Uncommon

Frequent in

News & Media

50%

Science

33%

Formal & Business

17%

Less common in

Reference

0%

Encyclopedias

0%

Wiki

0%

Ludwig's WRAP-UP

In summary, "barely outperforming" is a grammatically sound phrase used to express a slight margin of improvement. As per Ludwig AI, it’s appropriate in neutral and formal contexts, such as news reporting, scientific analysis, and business evaluations. While generally accepted, writers should be precise about the degree of outperformance and avoid overstating the significance of marginal improvements. When precision is key, consider alternatives like "slightly exceeding" or "marginally surpassing" to provide context-specific clarity.

More alternative expressions

Phrases that express similar concepts, ordered by semantic similarity:

slightly exceeding

Indicates a minor degree of surpassing, focusing on the small margin of difference.

marginally surpassing

Emphasizes that the act of surpassing is happening to a small degree, being almost imperceptible.

just exceeding

Stresses the action as being precisely adequate, with little room to spare.

scarcely better than

Focuses on the minimal extent of improvement, underlining that it's only slightly superior.

hardly surpassing

Suggests the action is challenging and the result is minimally better, stressing the difficulty.

only slightly ahead of

Highlights that the lead is not substantial, conveying the closeness in performance.

nearly matching

Shifts the focus to how close the performance is to another, rather than outright surpassing.

faintly exceeding

Adds an element of subtlety to the improvement, suggesting it's almost unnoticeable.

inching past

Conveys slow or incremental progress, illustrating how the improvement has been gradual.

scraping by

Indicates minimal success, often implying it barely reached the level of outperformance.

FAQs

How can I use "barely outperforming" in a sentence?

Use "barely outperforming" to describe a situation where one thing is only slightly better than another. For example, "The new software update is "barely outperforming" the old one in terms of speed".

What are some alternatives to "barely outperforming"?

Alternatives include "slightly exceeding", "marginally surpassing", or "just exceeding", all of which indicate a small margin of improvement.

Is it acceptable to use "barely outperforming" in formal writing?

Yes, "barely outperforming" is acceptable in formal writing, but ensure the context provides enough detail to understand the comparison and the slight difference in performance. More precise language may be appropriate depending on the context.

What's the difference between "barely outperforming" and "significantly outperforming"?

"Barely outperforming" indicates a minimal improvement, while "significantly outperforming" suggests a substantial and noticeable difference in performance. The choice depends on the actual degree of improvement observed.