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Literary notes about nearly (AI summary)

In literature, the adverb "nearly" is widely used to convey approximation, suggesting that something is almost, but not quite, complete or exact. Authors employ "nearly" to modify adjectives and adverbs—indicating quantities, extents, durations, or degrees of intensity. For instance, it softens assertions in phrases like "the Child has nearly recovered" [1] and "nearly equal" parts [2], while also setting precise, almost quantified details such as "It lasted nearly three hours" [3] or "There are nearly 900 miles of trails" [4]. Whether describing physical measures ("nearly a year" [5], "nearly 1,500,000 l. more" [6]) or emotional states ("I nearly cried" [7], "Babu was nearly in tears" [8]), "nearly" imbues the narrative with a sense of immediacy and subtle uncertainty. This versatile modifier furthermore appears in historical accounts (e.g., "nearly sixty thousand men" [9]) and even in metaphoric or ironic contexts (e.g., "nearly all the dead are unknown" [10]), demonstrating its capacity to bridge factual precision with evocative expressiveness.
  1. the Child has nearly recovered.
    — from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis
  2. This peninsula was divided into two nearly equal parts by a road.
    — from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman
  3. It lasted nearly three hours; he then heard a noise of something falling, and all was silent.
    — from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
  4. There are nearly 900 miles of trails in this park.
    — from Glacier National Park [Montana] by United States. Department of the Interior
  5. I had been there nearly a year, when a dear little friend of mine was buried.
    — from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs
  6. He tells us that this establishment is nearly 1,500,000 l. more than it was in 1752, 1753, and other years of peace.
    — from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
  7. I nearly cried.
    — from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
  8. Babu was nearly in tears.
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  9. The enemy occupied Grand Gulf, Haines' Bluff and Jackson with a force of nearly sixty thousand men.
    — from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant
  10. (In some of the cemeteries nearly all the dead are unknown.
    — from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman

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