The meaning of 'Just about'

[Jesus1]

Hello! How are you?

"He is just about the most interesting man I know"

Has "just about" the meaning of "almost"?

If so, He is not the most interesting man I know,
right? It doesn?t make much sense to me.
Therefore, Could you tell me if ?just about?has got a different meaning in this sentece?

Thanks a lot!

Jes?s

[Yankee]

Hi Jes?s

You're right! Just about does mean almost or very nearly or even practically. Maybe you should look at your sentence this way:

"He is one of the most interesting men I know."

In other words, maybe the speaker knows 100 men and 3 of those men are extremely interesting. But he can't decide which one of the 3 is the most interesting man. So, each of those 3 men might be seen as "just about the most interesting man".

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English