Word.ws English Dictionary

rather than

rather than conjunction: and not.

Conjunction

rather than

  1. And not.
  2. Used to indicate that the following alternative is less preferred.
    • I'd like to go home early rather than risk(ing) the roads later.
    • I prefer making my kids' toys myself rather than buying them.

Preposition

rather than

  1. Instead of; in preference to.
    • I'd prefer a dog rather than a cat.

rather than meaning in Tagalog, Arabic and Vietnamese

rather than in Tagalog

instead of, in preference to
imbes

rather than in Arabic

to indicate that the following alternative is less preferred
بَدَلًا مِن badalan min
instead of, in preference to
أَكْثَر مِن ʔakṯar min, عَنّ ʕann

rather than in Vietnamese

and not
chứ không phải
to indicate that the following alternative is less preferred
hơn là, thay vì
instead of, in preference to
hơn là, thay vì

Examples of rather than in a sentence

  • It was my wife, rather than I, who decided to leave.
  • It is never better to let kids have their way whenever they wish rather than standing up for one's parental authority.
  • Cheap mid-week return tickets were reintroduced by British Railways on May 7, to encourage holiday travel during the week rather than at weekends.1957 June, “Notes and News: Cheap Mid-Week Tickets Reintroduced”, in Railway Magazine, page 433:
  • Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:

Questions about rather than

What does rather than mean?
Rather than means and not.
What is rather than in Tagalog?
Rather than in Tagalog is imbes. See Rather than meaning in Tagalog.
How do you use rather than in a sentence?
It was my wife, rather than I, who decided to leave.
What part of speech is rather than?
Rather than can be a conjunction or a preposition.

Words near rather than in the dictionary

  1. rathel
  2. rathely
  3. Rathen
  4. ratheness
  5. rather
  6. rather than
  7. rathered
  8. Rathergate
  9. rathering
  10. ratheripe
  11. ratheripes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rather than (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-rather than.wav.

Cite this entry: “rather than.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rather_than. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.