lest
/lɛst/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
obsolete/liːst/
lest conjunction: for fear that; that not; in order to prevent something from happening; in case.
Conjunction
lest
- For fear that; that not; in order to prevent something from happening; in case.
- He won't go outside, lest he be eaten by those ravenous eagles.
- I brought my notes lest faulty memory lead me astray.
- Synonyms:
- before
- that (without the negative particle; introduces the reason for an emotion.)
- There was danger/alarm lest the plan become known.
- I am afraid lest I revealed too much.
lest meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Punjabi
lest in Urdu
- باصورت, کہیں, خدانخواستہ, مبادا
lest in Bengali
- that … not
- পাছে pache
lest in Malayalam
- (just) in case, for fear that, in order to avoid
- ഘടകം അല്ലാഞ്ഞാൽ, അല്ലെങ്കിൽ, ഇല്ലെങ്കിൽ, ആകാതെയിരിപ്പാൻ, അന്യഥാ, അല്ലാത്തപക്ഷം
lest in Punjabi
- lest, for fear that
- ਮਤਾਂ matā̃
More languagesFewer languages
- lest in Sanskrit
- न ná
- lest in Arabic
- خِيفَةَ أَنَّ ḵīfata ʔanna, مَخَافَةَ أَن maḵāfata ʔan
- lest in Indonesian
- jangan-jangan, jangan-jangan akan
Examples of lest in a sentence
- And then Robert Loo came out swiftly with the half-filled jar lest more be said.1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 565:
- Stay free from petty jealousies / Live by no man's code / And hold your judgment for yourself / Lest you wind up on this road1967, “I Am a Lonesome Hobo”, in Bob Dylan (music), John Wesley Harding:
- Lest any astrologer reading this result get cocky, Dr Cajochen does not believe that what he has found is directly influenced by the Moon through, say, some tidal effect.2013 July 27, “Lunacy?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8846:
- So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
Synonyms of lest
Origin of lest
c. 1200, contracted from Middle English les te (“less that”), from Old English þȳ lǣs þe (“whereby less that”), from þȳ (instrumental case of demonstrative article þæt (“that”)) + lǣs (“less”) + þe (“that,” relative particle). The þȳ was dropped and the remaining two words contracted into leste.
Phrases with lest
Words that rhyme with lest
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- attest
- guest
- quest
- bequest
- distressed
- pest
- prest
- request
- revest
- west
- wrest
- zest
- contest
- depressed
- dressed
- gest
- impressed
- jest
- suggest
- acid test
- best
- celeste
- divest
- ingest
- molest
- North West
- northwest
- possessed
- pressed
- professed
- southwest
- -cest
- addressed
- behest
- compressed
- congest
- detest
- fest
- infest
- obsessed
- pretest
- processed
- repressed
- rest.
- stressed
- tressed
- unrest
- unstressed
Questions about lest
- What does lest mean?
- Lest means for fear that; that not; in order to prevent something from happening; in case.
- What is lest in Urdu?
- Lest in Urdu is باصورت, کہیں, خدانخواستہ. See Lest meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use lest in a sentence?
- And then Robert Loo came out swiftly with the half-filled jar lest more be said.
- What part of speech is lest?
- Lest is a conjunction.
- How do you pronounce lest?
- Lest is pronounced /lɛst/.
Words near lest in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lest (page history and authors); lest (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lest (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ਮਤਾਂ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); न (Sanskrit) (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: en-us-lest.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.