MARGIN

(DIFFERENCE) [noun] [C] - the amount by which one thing is different from anotherThe Senate approved the use of military force by a margin of 52 votes to 47.The poll shows that the government is leading by the narrowest of margins.The August deadline for the project leaves us with no margin for error (= no additional time if things do not happen as planned).A margin of error is an additional amount of something, such as time or money, which you allow because there might be a mistake in your calculations.When archaeologists date objects that are thousands of years old, they allow a margin of error of several hundred years.The government estimates that its borrowing requirement this year could reach £150 billion, subject to a wide margin of error.In business, a (profit) margin is the difference between the amount of money that a company receives and the amount which it spends.Many small companies operate on very narrow margins.