Barely and Scarce

Barely

Barely adverb - Only a very short time before.
Usage example: they could barely hear the speaker

Scarce is a synonym for barely in near topic. In some cases you can use "Scarce" instead the word "Barely" as an adverb or an adjective. popular alternative

Nearby Words: bare, bareness

Scarce

Scarce adverb - Only a very short time before.
Usage example: "would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave"- W.B.Yeats

Barely is a synonym for scarce in near topic. You can use "Barely" instead an adverb "Scarce". popular alternative

Nearby Words: scarcity, scarcely, scarceness

Both words in one sentence

  • The Trabant is a legendary East German car known for three things; barely functioning, being so demanded and scarce in East Germany that people lined up to buy one anyway, and being the subject of an entire subgenre of "Trabi jokes".
  • Depressingly, this trope became inverted soon afterwards - the game sold so badly in Europe that Sony stopped producing copies of it barely a month after it was released, meaning that it became scarce and regularly sold for crazy prices on Ebay until it was re-released years later.
  • Video Game / Demon's Souls The result is being forced to get smashed by giants with clubs when you're barely able to evade them, and even less able to retaliate, the only exception being if you can engage the enemy on the very scarce land, which isn't possible in some cases.
Cite this Source
Scarce and Barely. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/barely/scarce
Barely & Scarce. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/barely/scarce>.
Scarce or Barely. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/barely/scarce.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "barely" and "scarce" have occurred on timeline