By the 1980s, retirement at age 65 was nearly universal for American workers.
When Milton Friedman died last year, the acclaim for his work was nearly universal.
After September 11th, the expectation that this would change was nearly universal.
The place of origin of this seagoing custom is unknown, but it was nearly universal among Europeans and sailors of the Mediterranean area by the 18th century.
The admiration for President Bush as a man of faith was nearly universal, and some talked of his contest with John Kerry as a spiritual battle.
Dr. Sherris said that while the presence of fungi was nearly universal, only people who were sensitive to them experienced the immune reaction.
Unlike the stock-option debate, where business opposition to the new rules was nearly universal, opinion is much more divided about merger accounting.
For individuals of his time and background, the stain of anti-Semitism in private language was nearly universal, ready to color any political or cultural enmity.
By the 1950s the embrace of abstraction was nearly universal: it became a symbol of post-war freedom, the opposite of the treacly folk art favoured by the Nazis.
"There was nearly universal assent to the notion that hockey had taken an utterly wrong turn about violence in the last few years," he said last month, before the story of Boogaard's life and death ignited renewed debate.
But he said it was nearly universal that anesthesiologists were being forced to use less familiar medications that leave patients groggier and with a higher risk of nausea and headaches.
