less
/lɛs/ adverb, determiner, preposition, verb, adjective, noun, conjunction
Forms lesses lessing lessed
- adverb Used for constructing syntactic diminutive comparatives of adjectives and adverbs. “Randal is less welcome than Rachel but as her spouse we should invite them both.”
- adverb To a smaller extent or degree. “The grammar book was less than (that is, not at all) helpful.”
- determiner A smaller amount of; not as much. “No less than eight pints of beer.”
- determiner (proscribed) Fewer; a smaller number of. “There are less people here now.”
- preposition Minus; not including “It should then tax all of that as personal income, less the proportion of the car's annual mileage demonstrably clocked up on company business.”
- verb (archaic) To make less; to lessen.
- adjective (archaic) Lesser; smaller.
- noun A smaller amount or quantity. “Less is better.”
- conjunction (dialectal, nonstandard) unless
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
Adverb From Middle English les, lesse, leasse, lasse, from Old English lǣs (“smaller, less”), from Proto-Germanic *laisiz, from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“to shrink, grow thin, be gentle”). Cognate with Old Frisian lēs (“less”), Old Saxon lēs (“less”). According to Kroonen (2013), from a northern Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *leh₂is- or *leh₃is-, which he connects to Lithuanian liesas (“lean”).
Determiner and preposition from Middle English lees, lesse, leasse, lasse, from Old English lǣssa (“less”), from Proto-Germanic *laisizan-, from Proto-Germanic *laisiz (“smaller, lesser, fewer, lower”) (see above). Cognate with Old Frisian lessa (“less”).
Verb from Middle English lessen, from the determiner.
Noun from Middle English lesse, from the determiner.
From Middle English lesse, les, from Old English lǣs, as in þȳ lǣs þe.
Webster’s 1913
- conjunction Unless. [Obs.] B. Jonson.
- adjective Smaller; not so large or great; not so much; shorter; inferior; as, a less quantity or number; a horse of less size or value; in less time than before.
- adverb Not so much; in a smaller or lower degree; as, less bright or loud; less beautiful.
- noun A smaller portion or quantity.
Etymology [OE. lesse, AS. læssa; akin to OFries. lessa; a compar. from a lost positive form. Cf. Lesser, Lest, Least. Less has the sense of the comparative degree of little.]
Etymology [AS. l. See Less, adj., and cf. Lest.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “less”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details