Word.ws English Dictionary

at the least

at the least is the alternative form of at least.

Meaning of at least

Prepositional phrase

  1. (focus) At a minimum or lower limit.
    • I couldn't count them all, but I think there must have been at least 500 people in attendance.
  2. In any event; anyway.
    • You could even be discovered, become a movie star, or at least see one.1997 May 14, Brian Helgeland, Curtis Hanson, L.A. Confidential, spoken by Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito), Regency Enterprises; distributed by Warner Bros.

Origin of at the least

From Middle English at þe leste.

Questions about at the least

What is at the least the alternative form of?
At the least is the alternative form of at least.

Words near at the least in the dictionary

  1. at the instance of
  2. at the last
  3. at the last minute
  4. at the last moment
  5. at the latest
  6. at the least
  7. at the mercy of
  8. at the minimum
  9. at the minute
  10. at the moment
  11. at the money

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: at the least (page history and authors); at least (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.

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Cite this entry: “at the least.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/at_the_least. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.