mere

Without it, growth would have slowed to a mere fraction of a percentage point, leaving the economy nearly stagnant and flirting with recession.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2026

While some on Wall Street view a combination as more of an inevitable reality and less a mere possibility, Musk recently reminded investors that nothing is guaranteed.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026

But any such comparisons are mere self-glorifying fantasy, for several reasons but two in particular.

From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2026

Secondly, the mere fact that City were able to assemble a squad far better than their finances should have allowed.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

Full figures, not the mere whisper of them, clamored about from all sides, a full, solid dark, only growing when the dead inside it began to take shape—and move in, tightening around them.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny

Before Lamarck, naturalists saw organisms as passive, depending on supernatural intervention for their merest actions as well as their very existence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026

But for now he is a jovial Irish scamp, with the merest hint of a dark streak; where Sherlock comes from money, James, as he’s called here, is at school on a scholarship.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026

She reset to hold, then wrestled back the break, allowing herself the merest of smiles.

From Barron's ● Jan. 31, 2026

"Lapwood's music was evocative, deploying the organ's entire range, from the merest whisper to stadium-rock pomp at full volume," he wrote.

From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2023

They would trickle out in dribs and drabs, memories surfacing suddenly, prompted by the merest thread, the way memories often do.

From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng