adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
almost/virtually certain
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It is almost certain that she will be given a prison sentence.
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Prices are virtually certain to increase.
almost/virtually unanimous
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The decision to appoint Matt was almost unanimous.
almost/virtually/practically etc nonexistent
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On a Sunday morning traffic was almost nonexistent.
virtually nothing
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She had eaten virtually nothing at supper.
virtually/almost/practically useless
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These flaws could make the software virtually useless in a business environment.
virtually/fairly/largely meaningless
virtually/practically impossible (= almost impossible )
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Getting tickets for the concert is practically impossible.
virtually/practically/almost etc invisible
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
certain
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It also explains why it is virtually certain that Britain's main trunk lines will rely on optical fibre.
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We are virtually certain that this incident was a deliberate provocation.
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A healthy competition for places is never a bad thing and only Campbell, Scholes and Beckham are virtually certain of selection.
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The Gaylord family controls about 60 percent of the voting stock, so approval is virtually certain .
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A U.S. appeal of the decision is virtually certain and would take months.
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A senior Democratic aide said it was virtually certain that Democrats would push for censure.
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The Congress is virtually certain to declare itself independent of the Soviet Party.
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After a weekend in New York, Maddux said he was virtually certain of signing a five-year deal with the Yankees.
complete
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Although milling ceased around four decades ago, the mill machinery both externally and internally is still virtually complete .
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The state earlier this month gave Brown virtually complete control over Treasure Island.
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At such times his domination of the Company was virtually complete .
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At least one of the Hurricanes is virtually complete and looks a viable project to rebuild to flying condition.
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Recent renovation work has shown that beneath these modifications the fourth-century church is virtually complete .
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Clearly a public service campaign must, within reason, aim for virtually complete coverage.
identical
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It was just that they were all in profile and virtually identical .
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Its atomic properties turned out to be virtually identical with the Murmansk uranium.
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Unless Labour develops its policies the next election will be a battle between two parties with virtually identical economic policies.
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The prices of forward exchange and futures contract are virtually identical once contracts have same maturity dates. 8.
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However for AEs the figures were virtually identical with those of standard entrants. 2% more SEs gained good degrees than NSEs.
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These magazines regularly feature comparative photos of men in outfits that look virtually identical .
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The story of the Enewetak islanders is virtually identical .
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On Northumbrian moors the red grouse and the black grouse live in virtually identical habitats.
impossible
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In reality, it was virtually impossible for the supporters of democracy to rally.
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If by making corruption virtually impossible we also make quality performance virtually impossible, have we done a good thing?
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It is virtually impossible to do justice to a book of this size in such a short review.
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It was virtually impossible to live in the United States in the late 1960s without being exposed to the growing antiwar movement.
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The position of the piece of gravel would have made it virtually impossible for the fish to dislodge it.
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In fact, without some anxiety it would be virtually impossible to be productive.
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But fish and chips are, I would suggest, virtually impossible to sling.
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Such appeals were virtually impossible before an order in April 1996 by now-Chief of Naval Operations Adm.
indistinguishable
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Others are virtually indistinguishable from the flowers with which they associate - so much so that smaller insects keep settling on them.
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In our headlong pursuit to acquire wealth and worldly pleasures, Christians have become virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the world.
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A material so light as to be virtually indistinguishable from natural slate.
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Huckleberries are virtually indistinguishable from wild blueberries.
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Results obtained for the wild-type and for the mutant protein are virtually indistinguishable .
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The clinical features are virtually indistinguishable from Stuttering.
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Great tracts of the Middle Kingdom will be virtually indistinguishable from the tiny entrepreneurial enclave.
invisible
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Thereafter their history remains virtually invisible for a hundred million years.
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They are attached to the speaker's clothing and are virtually invisible on shot.
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The ring is virtually invisible around the central cornea which is the critical area for clear vision.
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Soon they may be virtually invisible except for a discreet beacon.
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Because of its thin design and attractive white finish it's virtually invisible when the radiator is in place.
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It will be quiet, manoeuvrable, virtually invisible to radar and capable of supersonic flight without the use of afterburners.
unchanged
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Although overall revenues here were up 11% to £172.3m, after adjustment for exchange rates, they remained virtually unchanged .
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Designs resulting largely from trial and error remained virtually unchanged over 200 years.
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The duration of cohabitation, however, has remained virtually unchanged .
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The pattern of ditched fields is virtually unchanged from that time.
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Immediately afterwards, the market price of the remaining debt nearly doubled, leaving the total value virtually unchanged .
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Operating ratio at the half year virtually unchanged at 112.25%.
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Although sales in its chemicals division fell, productivity improvements and the pound's devaluation enabled profits to remain virtually unchanged .
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The number of places in local authority and voluntary homes remained virtually unchanged .
unknown
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Union membership is virtually unknown except for isolated technicians like film projection people.
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Even more than most of his predecessors, Gorbachev was virtually unknown in the West when he came to power.
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As an accurate observer of, and extensive traveller in, a virtually unknown land he was unrivalled.
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Atheism is virtually unknown in pagan and rural societies, but this new rationalism will usher it into the modern world.
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He was virtually unknown in the United States.
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Materialism has until recently been virtually unknown in Confucian societies.
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Crime and drugs are virtually unknown .
useless
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The energy, once transferred to the bath is in the form of low grade heat and therefore virtually useless .
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These programs provide facilities ranging from the essential to the virtually useless depending on your point of view.
■ VERB
become
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Unless these exist in some measure it becomes virtually impossible to continue any social activity.
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In our headlong pursuit to acquire wealth and worldly pleasures, Christians have become virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the world.
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Just when it is vital to get policy on sterling right, the task has become virtually impossible.
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Complex machines Even within the first book, the two men become virtually inseparable.
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Only in this century has politics become virtually confined to, and channeled through, the media.
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By the 1730s this construction had been superseded by a knuckle joint at the top and the gate-leg had become virtually obsolete.
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When one thinks about consciousness in this way, the impression of purposiveness in evolution becomes virtually overwhelming.
disappear
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He observed how institutional forms of control by society had virtually disappeared .
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Mulchers cut and recut the grass clippings so that they virtually disappear within the lawn.
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Relief-line, and indeed any use of undiluted black, virtually disappears .
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In several cases, a species has virtually disappeared in a few years.
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Support Forest had virtually disappeared as an attacking force, with the outnumbered Clough receiving little support from midfield.
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During a 45-day storm in the winter of 1968-69, the Mount Disney and Mount Lincoln chair lifts virtually disappeared .
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For some years now, the amateur market has been dominated by one-piece machines and separates have virtually disappeared from the scene.
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The gap between the knowledge of. the skilled worker and bourgeois technician has virtually disappeared or been greatly reduced.
eliminate
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The problem is virtually eliminated in commercially grown mussels, by harvesting them before they are five years old.
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Countries now routinely providing vitamin A have virtually eliminated vitamin Arelated blindness and death.
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A few candidates may virtually eliminate themselves by their hesitancy and you can even consider refusing to continue the interview.
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Those are the costs Proposition 186 would virtually eliminate .
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For the bureaucracy itself, Marx noted how a Bonapartist regime virtually eliminated the risk of public scrutiny and criticism.
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Either, combined with common-sense precautions exercised by drivers and passengers, can virtually eliminate air bag hazards.
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Absentee landlords and large concentrations of landholdings were virtually eliminated .
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He reacted rather than acted, and that virtually eliminates all of his effectiveness.
guarantee
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Those price agreements, which virtually guarantee the firms a 25 percent profit on the drugs, are being renegotiated this month.
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Yet this refusal to intervene virtually guarantees that core group behavior will continue to be encouraged by profit-minded entrepreneurs.
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Official leniency is exploited by the smugglers who can virtually guarantee secure entry, whatever happens.
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Yet continuity of basic policy is virtually guaranteed by the retention of Norman Lamont at the Treasury.
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Like those cars, it's available in numbers exclusive enough to virtually guarantee future classic status.
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When he batted, his name did not merely promise runs as virtually guarantee them.
ignore
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Horizontal influences have been virtually ignored in Soviet and Western historiography alike.
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But when he visits their classrooms, they virtually ignore his presence.
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In contrast, non-communicable diseases have been virtually ignored by local health departments.
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Once, this was difficult to cross; then, railways spanned it; now, air travel virtually ignores it.
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General elections have become more presidential and the mass media virtually ignore the secondary party leaders.
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Meanwhile, the cyber gods controlling the random selection virtually ignored some large districts in other areas of the state.
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Batch processes and multipurpose plants are virtually ignored .
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After months of virtually ignoring the programs, and years of well-publicized cutbacks, airlines and hotels are suddenly getting generous.
remain
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Although overall revenues here were up 11% to £172.3m, after adjustment for exchange rates, they remained virtually unchanged.
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Our striking power remained virtually intact.
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Even 2 out of every 3 farm labouring families stayed put and overall 3 out of every 4 households remained virtually the same.
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I had remained virtually silent throughout this meeting, confining myself to copious note-taking.
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Designs resulting largely from trial and error remained virtually unchanged over 200 years.
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Forbes, similarly, is remaining virtually free of financial strings in the form of contributions.
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Thereafter their history remains virtually invisible for a hundred million years.
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While they collected endorsements and magazine covers, Strug remained virtually faceless.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Virtually everyone expects Monica to succeed.
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virtually published on the Internet
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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It had virtually no towns, in fact; and those it had were very primitive indeed.
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Some of them had abandoned front rooms and virtually none opened front windows.
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The original building remains virtually intact and is now the administrative block of the North Wing.
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The recession has cut the number of Thames's commercial customers and has virtually killed off profits from selling redundant properties.
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They receive messages from virtually every nerve in the human body via connections with the optic nerve and spinal cord.
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Unlike previous generations of cruise ships, the ever-larger vessels delivered in recent years have virtually no single cabins.
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When disturbed they roll up so tightly that it is virtually impossible to unroll them.