Word.ws English Dictionary

as near as matters

as near as matters phrase: close enough not to matter, or to be essentially the same.

Phrase

as near as matters

  1. Close enough not to matter, or to be essentially the same.
    • As near as matters, three billion people would be hearing him. And, as near as matters, one billion Martians.1954, Fredric Brown, Martians, Go Home
    • What is needed to distinguish the two is the fact that it really was Esa rather than Twin Esa who figured appropriately in the etiology of Arabella's inner state. And that is as near as matters to saying that the truth-condition rather than the 'narrow' conceptual role is the vehicle of learning.1986, Ernest LePore, Truth and Interpretation, page 253

Origin of as near as matters

An illogical formation, perhaps by confusion with "as near as makes no odds" or similar.

Questions about as near as matters

What does as near as matters mean?
As near as matters means close enough not to matter, or to be essentially the same.
What part of speech is as near as matters?
As near as matters is a phrase.

Words near as near as matters in the dictionary

  1. as much as possible
  2. as much sinning as sinned against
  3. as much use as a chocolate fireguard
  4. as much use as a chocolate teapot
  5. as near as makes no difference
  6. as near as matters
  7. as nervous as a witch
  8. as of
  9. as of late
  10. as of now
  11. as of right

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: as near as matters (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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