a few
/ə ˈfjuː/
a few determiner: a small number of (a set of countable items); more than one but not very many; especially, more than two but not very many (explained in usage note at several).
Determiner
a few
- A small number of (a set of countable items); more than one but not very many; especially, more than two but not very many (explained in usage note at several).
- She loves to sing karaoke, but there are a few songs that she refuses to cover.
- After a dismal few months my life at long last changed for the better.
- Synonyms:
- a couple of, several
Pronoun
a few
- A small number of things.
- Regrets, I've had a few, but then again too few to mention.
- Did everyone go home? ―No, a few (of them) are still chatting.
a few meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu
a few in Hindi
- a small number of things
- कुछ kuch
a few in Tamil
- a small number of
- நாலு nālu, சில cila
- a small number of things
- ஒரு சில oru cila
a few in Urdu
- a small number of things
- کُچھ kuch
a few in Telugu
- a small number of things
- కొన్ని konni, కొందరు kondaru
More languagesFewer languages
- a few in Malayalam
- ഏതാനും, അല്പം, അല്ലറ, ചില
- a few in Kannada
- ಅರೆಬರ್
- a few in Tagalog
- may ilan
- a few in Arabic
- قَلِيل qalīl
- a few in Vietnamese
- một vài
Examples of a few in a sentence
- Only a few miles separates the villages.
- Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal.[…]"1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co. […]...
Synonyms of a few
- a couple of
- several
Antonyms
Words formed from a few
Questions about a few
- What does a few mean?
- A few means a small number of (a set of countable items); more than one but not very many; especially, more than two but not very many (explained in usage note at several).
- What is a few in Hindi?
- A few in Hindi is कुछ (kuch). See A few meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use a few in a sentence?
- Only a few miles separates the villages.
- What part of speech is a few?
- A few can be a determiner or a pronoun.
- How do you pronounce a few?
- A few is pronounced /ə ˈfjuː/.
Words near a few in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: a few (page history and authors); a few (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); a few (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-AnotherFriendlyHuman-a few.wav.
Cite this entry: “a few.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/a_few. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.