less
/lɛs/
less adverb: used for constructing syntactic diminutive comparatives of adjectives and adverbs. Also the comparative degree of little.
Adverb
less (diminutive comparative)
- 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.
- This gadget is less useful than I expected.
- To a smaller extent or degree.
- The grammar book was less than (that is, not at all) helpful.
- That this is a positive one makes it no less a stereotype, and therefore unacceptable.
Determiner
less
- A smaller amount of; not as much.
- No less than eight pints of beer.
- I have less tea than coffee.
- Fewer; a smaller number of.
- There are less people here now.
- Now there are three less green bottles hanging on the wall.
Preposition
less
- 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.
- Total: $500, less $50 expenses.
Verb
less (third-person singular simple present lesses, present participle lessing, simple past and past participle lessed)
- To make less; to lessen.
- What he will make lesse, he lesseth.1386-90, Gower, Confessio Amantis
- Som of the wiser sort, divining upon this vission, attrebute to the pen-knyves the lenth of tym before this should com to pass, and it hath been observed by sindrie that the earles of that hous befor wer the richest in the kingdom, having treasure and store besyde them, but ever since the addittion...c. 1650, Patrick Gordon of Ruthven, A short Abridgement of Britane's Distemper, from the yeares of God 1639 to 1649, printed 1844 for the Spalding Club
Adjective
less (not comparable)
- Lesser; smaller.
- Such too, to a greater or less extent, is the condition of the operatives of every denomination in England, which is the great workhouse of the world.1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC
- This he said, thinking that Alan would be pleased; but the Highlandman’s vanity was ready to startle at a less matter than that.1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped
Noun (1)
less (uncountable)
- A smaller amount or quantity.
- Less is better.
- I have less to do today than yesterday.
Conjunction
less
- unless
- To tell you true, 'tis too good for you, 'less you had grace to follow it1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot, […], published 1631...
Noun (2) capitalized: LESs
LESs
- plural of LES
Also used as
less is also the comparative degree of little.
less is also the comparative form of little.
less is also the alternative form of let's.
less meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
less in Hindi
- to a smaller extent or degree
- न्यून nyūn, अल्प alp
less in Tamil
- குறைவானது, குறைவாக
less in Marathi
- कमीच
less in Urdu
- to a smaller extent or degree
- کم kam
More languagesFewer languages
- less in Bengali
- কম, কম করে
- less in Telugu
- తక్కువే
- less in Malayalam
- കുറവ്
- less in Kannada
- ಕಡಿಮೆ
- less in Punjabi
- ਘੱਟ
- less in Gujarati
- ઓછું, ઓછી
- less in Odia
- କମ୍
- less in Arabic
- أَقَلّ ʔaqall, نَاقِص nāqiṣ
- less in Malay
- kurang
- less in Indonesian
- lebih sedikit
- less in Persian
- کمتر kamtar
Examples of less in a sentence
- I'm not any less happy for being on my own.
- Demanding? I've never known a less demanding patient!
- You have even less sense than an inanimate object.
- The express checkout lane is for those with ten items or less.
- I earned $45,000 last year, less tax and insurance.
- Last month less of my salary was taken up with household expenses.
Antonyms of less
Forms of less
| third-person singular present | lesses |
|---|---|
| present participle | lessing |
| past participle | lessed |
| past | lessed |
Origin of less
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.
Words formed from less
- all the less
- could care less
- could not care less
- couldn't care less
- deuce less
- in less than no time
- less and less
- less is a bore
- less is more
- less-lethal
- lessness
- less so
- less than
- less than no time
- less-than-stellar
- less than stellar
- less than three
- less than truckload
- more or less
- much less
- natheless
- ne'ertheless
- nevertheless
- no less
- no more no less
- none the less
- nonetheless
- road less traveled
- road less travelled
- say less
- twice as less
- very less
Phrases with less
- less known
- less thans
- less than threed
- less than threes
- less than nothing
- nothing less than
- less than threeing
- roads less traveled
- roads less travelled
- could have cared less
- more haste, less speed
- couldn't have cared less
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with less
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- SMS
- success
- compress
- largesse
- ness
- profess
- confess
- distress
- regress
- depress
- excess
- guess
- prepossess
- undress
- CBS
- ingress
- oppress
- redress
- transgress
- assess
- cess
- duress
- fess
- fluoresce
- Hesse
- mayoress
- obsess
- tress
- unless
- yes
- accresce
- acquiesce
- aggress
- BESS
- caress
- clothes press
- congress
- defervesce
- digress
- ess
- foulness
- Hess
- intumesce
- jess
- lazy S
- liquesce
- repress
- second-guess
Questions about less
- What does less mean?
- Less means used for constructing syntactic diminutive comparatives of adjectives and adverbs.
- What is less in Hindi?
- Less in Hindi is न्यून (nyūn), अल्प (alp). See Less meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use less in a sentence?
- I'm not any less happy for being on my own.
- What part of speech is less?
- Less can be an adverb, a determiner, a preposition or a verb.
- How do you pronounce less?
- Less is pronounced /lɛs/.
Words near less in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: less (page history and authors); LESs (page history and authors); less (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); less (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); less (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); less (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); less (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); less (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); less (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); less (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); less (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: En-uk-less.ogg, en-us-less.ogg.
Cite this entry: “less.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/less. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.