Meaning
- not similar at all.
- completely unlike.
- not nearly.
- a great deal less.
Example Sentences
- She's nowhere near recovered from her experiences.
- Although the operation had already gone on for eight hours, it was nowhere near complete.
- The sofa he sat on was nowhere near as comfy as the custom-designed one in his home.
- Even though I perform well in math, I'm nowhere near as good as my sister.
- The design is nowhere near what I expected. You must start over with the project.
- Their home is nowhere near as beautiful as yours.
- My home is nowhere near finished.
Origin
This idiom comes from two words: nowhere and near. As an adverb, "nowhere" means not in any state or situation. The word has been in use since 1803. Nowhere is a noun that means a non-existent place or an inaccessible or remote place. That's why people use the phrase "in the middle of nowhere." As a verb, the other word in the idiom means to approach. As an adjective, it means being close, not far, and has been in use since 1300. When people use the idiom " nowhere near " in front of an expression or word, they emphasize that the real situation is significantly different from or has not reached the state that that expression or word suggests.