Other forms: margins
A margin is the blank edge of a page, or the amount by which something is won. Write in the margin, a narrow margin, a margin of error.
In business the margin is the difference between cost and price, and a thin one means the business fails on a bad month. A margin of error is the range a result might really lie in, and headlines about polls usually ignore it.
1nounmarginThe blank edge of a page.
“The teacher wrote comments in the margin of my essay in red pen.”
2nounamountThe amount by which something is won.
“She won the election by a narrow margin, and her rival demanded a recount.”
margin is an edge, or a difference.
Latin margo means an edge or border. Mark and march, in the sense of a border region, are relatives.
Old French
margin
Latin
marginem
Middle English
margyn
English, today
margin
Built from
From Middle English margyn, from Latin marginem (possibly via Old French margin), accusative of margō (“edge, brink, border, margin”). a doublet of marge and margo.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA