Word.ws English Dictionary

thisclose

thisclose adjective: this close; extremely close.

Adjective

thisclose (not comparable)

  1. (informal, nonstandard) This close; extremely close.
    • JUDY GARLAND was thisclose to signing an exclusive TV contract with NBC, but the deal fell through.1955, Bob Stohl, TV guide: Volume 3, page 27
    • Sources indicate that Danzig is thisclose to signing a new label deal.2001 December 17, CMJ New Music Report, volume 69, number 743, page 10

Examples of thisclose in a sentence

  • Bridget is the only one at school who knows that I came thisclose to letting Marcus Flutie devirginize me last New Year's Eve.2003, Megan McCafferty, Second Helpings: A Novel, page 80:
  • He knew he was thisclose to cuffing Bobbie Faye.2009, Toni McGee Causey, Charmed and Dangerous, page 268:
  • If her father knew she was thisclose to a male like that?2015, J. R. Ward, Blood Kiss, page 35:

Origin of thisclose

A presentation of the phrase "this close" that intentionally omits the space between the words to demonstrate the degree of closeness.

Questions about thisclose

What does thisclose mean?
Thisclose means this close; extremely close.
How do you use thisclose in a sentence?
Bridget is the only one at school who knows that I came thisclose to letting Marcus Flutie devirginize me last New Year's Eve.
What part of speech is thisclose?
Thisclose is an adjective.

Words near thisclose in the dictionary

  1. this-worldliness
  2. this-worldly
  3. thisaway
  4. Thisbe
  5. Thisby
  6. thisclose
  7. thises
  8. thish
  9. thismiaceous
  10. Thisne
  11. thisness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thisclose (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “thisclose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thisclose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.