What's the difference between barely and hardly?

Barely


Definition:

  • (adv.) Without covering; nakedly.
  • (adv.) Without concealment or disguise.
  • (adv.) Merely; only.
  • (adv.) But just; without any excess; with nothing to spare ( of quantity, time, etc.); hence, scarcely; hardly; as, there was barely enough for all; he barely escaped.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Environment groups Environment groups that have strongly backed low-carbon power have barely wavered in their opposition to nuclear in the last decade, although their arguments now are now much about the cost than the danger it might pose.
  • (2) Moderately differentiated tumor revealed a wider range of nucleus size, less clustering (coefficient--3.59) and more hyperchromatic (70.1%) and "bare" (49.4%) nuclei and large nucleoli (22.2%).
  • (3) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats have suffered a dramatic slump in support as a result of their role in the coalition and are now barely ahead of the Greens with an average rating of about 8% in the polls.
  • (4) At the bottom is a tiny harbour where cafe Itxas Etxea – bare brick walls and wraparound glass windows – is serving txakoli, the local white wine.
  • (5) Some antibodies and other proteins bind tightly to nitrocellulose and dissociation of these proteins by Tween 20 is barely detectable.
  • (6) In a barely-noticed submission to the government's Environmental Audit Committee, the London borough of Hounslow, the airport's near neighbours, said the airport was: breaching the World Health Organisation's guidelines for the levels for noise in people's bedrooms; breaching the EU guidelines for levels of nitrogen dioxide; and breaching British standards on the noise experienced by children in classrooms.
  • (7) For a writer barely out of his teens when it was published, in 1946, the book was an unusual achievement.
  • (8) Saving for a deposit is near impossible while paying extortionate rents for barely habitable flatshares.
  • (9) The relatively small reservoir and the maintenance of a minimum flow of water on the trunk river means the plant will work on average at barely 40% of its 11,200MW capacity.
  • (10) I have in the past predicted anger, as the consequences of the recession for public spending become clear; I think the process of expressing that anger has barely begun.
  • (11) She walks past stack after stack of books kept behind metal cages, the shelves barely visible in the dim light from the frosted-glass windows.
  • (12) Dual-positive CD4+CD8+ T cells (which were barely detectable in normal adults), CD4-CD8+ T cells and B cells transiently reached supranormal levels during recovery.
  • (13) But Sir Hayden Phillips's proposals are stalemated by Labour determination to cap spending and the Tory desire to cap Labour's unions funding while leaving their own flow of funds barely affected.
  • (14) In Golgi-Cox-impregnated coronal sections of albino rat brains at 1, 4, 26, 24, 30, 60 and 90 days it is presented the evolution of the spine-less, bare initial zone ("nude zone", NZ) at the proximal apical main dendrites of the layer V pyramidal neurons in the somatosensory and anterior limbie cortex.
  • (15) Average earnings are forecast to grow just 2.4% in 2017, meaning they will be barely rising in real terms.
  • (16) The police officers guarding the entrance to Japan's nuclear evacuation zone barely glance at Yukio Yamamoto's permit before waving him through.
  • (17) An additional 30 cm of clay covered the tailings on one plot and each plot was subdivided into bare soil and vegetated subplots.
  • (18) In order to avoid the drawbacks of the cutting end of the bare optic fibers, it may be covered with sapphire optics which conducts well laser energy.
  • (19) In addition the bare central backbone showed transverse striations.
  • (20) In a third experiment, rats were unilaterally gonadectomized and blood samples were obtained at various intervals for 48 h. Following unilateral gonadectomy there was a significant transient increase in FSH levels in male or female MSG-treated rats as compared to their 0 h values; however, the absolute levels attained were barely equal to the basal concentrations observed in the saline-treated control rats.

Hardly


Definition:

  • (adv.) In a hard or difficult manner; with difficulty.
  • (adv.) Unwillingly; grudgingly.
  • (adv.) Scarcely; barely; not guite; not wholly.
  • (adv.) Severely; harshly; roughly.
  • (adv.) Confidently; hardily.
  • (adv.) Certainly; surely; indeed.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Lucy and Ed will combine coverage of hard and breaking news with a commitment to investigative journalism, which their track record so clearly demonstrates”.
  • (2) Sierra Leone is one of the three West Africa nations hit hard by an Ebola epidemic this year.
  • (3) Topical and systemic antibiotic therapy is common in dermatology, yet it is hard to find a rationale for a particular route in some diseases.
  • (4) Given Australia’s number one position as the worst carbon emitter per capita among major western nations it seems hardly surprising that islanders from Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and other small island developing states have been turning to Australia with growing exasperation demanding the country demonstrate an appropriate response and responsibility.
  • (5) They had learned through hard experience what Frederick Douglass once taught -- that freedom is not given, it must be won, through struggle and discipline, persistence and faith.
  • (6) In 60 rhesus monkeys with experimental renovascular malignant arterial hypertension (25 one-kidney and 35 two-kidney model animals), we studied the so-called 'hard exudates' or white retinal deposits in detail (by ophthalmoscopy, and stereoscopic color fundus photography and fluorescein fundus angiography, on long-term follow-up).
  • (7) It is a moment to be grateful for what remains of Labour's hard left: an amendment to scrap the cap was at least tabled by John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn but stood no chance.
  • (8) She stopped working only when the pain made it hard for her to get to work.
  • (9) He was reclusive, I know that, and he was often given a hard time for it.
  • (10) This defeat, though, is hardly a good calling card for the main job.
  • (11) Since this test is easily performed and hardly stresses the patient, it should routinely be the initial one for the diagnosis of renal osteopathy.
  • (12) Never become so enamored of your own smarts that you stop signing up for life’s hard classes.
  • (13) But I don't wish to be too hard on the judge for not taking that view.
  • (14) Our campaign has been going for some time and each step in our progress has been hard won, by campaigners paid and volunteer alike.
  • (15) I am rooting hard for you.” Ronald Reagan simply told his former vice-president Bush: “Don’t let the turkeys get you down.” By 10.30am Michelle Obama and Melania Trump will join the outgoing and incoming presidents in a presidential limousine to drive to the Capitol.
  • (16) All the same, it's hard to approach the school, which charges nearly £28,000 for boarders and nearly £19,000 for day girls and is sometimes called "the girls' Eton", without a few prejudices.
  • (17) Governmental officials as well as medical scientists in Taiwan have worked hard in recent years to develop and to implement various measures, such as prenatal diagnosis and neonatal screening, to lower the incidence of hereditary diseases and mental retardation in the population.
  • (18) Cooper, who was briefly a social worker in Los Angeles, also suggests working hard to build a rapport with colleagues in hotdesking situations.
  • (19) Critics of wind power peddle the same old myths about investment in new energy sources adding to families' fuel bills , preferring to pick a fight with people concerned about the environment, than stand up to vested interests in the energy industry, for the hard-pressed families and pensioners being ripped off by the energy giants.
  • (20) The spirit is great here, the players work very hard, we kept the belief when we were in third place and now we are here.