less

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

less

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɛs/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛs

Etymology 1

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”).(Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) 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.

Adverb

less (diminutive comparative)

1. comparative degree of little

   I slept even less last night than I did the night before.

   I like him less each time I see him.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.

2. 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.

   I'm not any less happy for being on my own.

   • 1957, Lester Del Rey, Rockets Through Space: The Story of Man's Preparations to Explore the Universe:

     This section of space is much less empty than that between the stars, […]

   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎:

     That brief moment after the election four years ago, when many Americans thought Mr. Obama’s election would presage a new, less fractious political era, now seems very much a thing of the past.

   • 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

     In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.

3. 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.

Antonyms

• more

Translations

Determiner

less

1. (Now chiefly of numbers or dimensions) comparative form of little: more little; of inferior size, degree or extent; smaller, lesser.
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 141:

     Those Rattels are somewhat like the chape of a Rapier, but lesse, which they take from the taile of a snake.

   • 1711, The Spectator, number 126:

     We are likewise ready to maintain with the hazard of all that is near and dear to us, that six is less than seven in all times and all places […] .

   • 1885, Edward James Reed, A Treatise on the Stability of Ships:

     It is also easy to see that the straight line, representing the locus of centres of buoyancy for a rectangular section, must lie at a less inclination to the base (i.e., to the horizontal) than a line representing the locus of such centres for a parabolic section […]

2. A smaller amount of; not as much.

   No less than eight pints of beer.

   I have less tea than coffee.

   You have even less sense than an inanimate object.

   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:

     Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.

3. (proscribed) Fewer; a smaller number of.

   There are less people here now.

   Now there are three less green bottles hanging on the wall.

   • 1681, John Houghton, A Collection For the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, page 263:

     ... on his land he will have less manure, less corn, and less people; ...

   • 1952 September 7, Thomas M Pryor, New York Times:

     This is not a happy situation as far as the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes is concerned because it means less jobs for the union's members here at home.

   • 1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 555:

     No less than four standard-bearers went before them, carrying huge crimson banners emblazoned with the golden lion.

   • 2003 December 16, Timandra Harkness, The Guardian:

     Although my hosts, G S Aviation, can teach you to fly in Wiltshire, an intensive week at their French airfield means less problems with the weather, cheap but good living, and complete removal from any distractions.

Usage notes

Some regard the use of the determiner less with countable quantities to be incorrect, stating that less should indicate only a reduction in uncountable quantity, or in size or significance, leaving fewer to indicate a smaller numerical quantity. For example, they suggest saying less sugar, but fewer people, not less people. Such a rule can allow distinctions such as:

• Their troubles are fewer than ours, meaning "Their troubles are not so numerous as ours."
• Their troubles are less than ours, meaning "Their troubles are not so great as ours."

Nevertheless, less has been widely understood and commonly used as a synonym for fewer since it first appeared in Old English as læs.

Antonyms

• more

Translations

See also

• fewer
• lesser

Preposition

less

1. 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.

Antonyms

• plus

Translations

Verb

less (third-person singular simple present lesses, present participle lessing, simple past and past participle lessed)

1. (archaic) To make less; to lessen.
   • 1386-90, Gower, Confessio Amantis

     What he will make lesse, he lesseth.

   • 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

     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 of this so great a revenue, they have lessed the stock by heavie burdens of debt and ingagment.

   • 1816, "Joseph Wharton" , Poulson's Advertiser, quoted in Genealogy of the Wharton Family of Philadelphia: 1664 to 1880, Anne Hollingsworth Wharton (1880)

     The protracted term of life, and the lingering illness through which this gentleman had passed, had neither impaired the original vigour of his mind, nor lessed the uncommon warmth of his affections.

   • 1852, Charles Heavysege, The revolt of Tartarus, a poem, page 116:

     Soon as I lessed the tree of this, it waned — Less cause, gave less effect

   • 1886, Horace Eaton Walker, The Lady of Dardale and Other Poems, page 74:

     The scattered beauties thro' the air, Have lessed the woe, the dread, the care;

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

less (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Lesser; smaller.
   • 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped:

     This he said, thinking that Alan would be pleased; but the Highlandman’s vanity was ready to startle at a less matter than that.

Noun

less (uncountable)

1. A smaller amount or quantity.

   Less is better.

   I have less to do today than yesterday.

Etymology 2

From Middle English lesse, les, from Old English lǣs, as in þȳ lǣs þe.

Conjunction

less

1. (dialectal, nonstandard) unless
   • 1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, , London: I B for Robert Allot, , published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     To tell you true, 'tis too good for you, 'less you had grace to follow it

References

• “less”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “less”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “less”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• ELSS, SELs, SLEs

Hungarian

Etymology

les +‎ -j

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: less
• Rhymes: -ɛʃː

Verb

less

1. second-person singular subjunctive present indefinite of les

Lombard

Etymology

From Latin elixus. Compare Italian lesso (“boiled meat”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛsː/

Noun

less m (invariable)

1. boiled meat

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Old Norse látast. Cognate with Swedish låtsas.

Verb

less (present tense less, past tense less)

1. to pretend (to be)

Etymology 2

Verb

less

1. imperative of lesse

References

• “less” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

Verb

less

1. imperative of lessa

Etymology 2

Verb

less

1. (non-standard since 2012) past tense of låss

Old Irish

Etymology 1

Suggested by Stokes to be from Proto-Celtic *lesso-, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”), similar to Proto-Slavic *plodъ (“fruit”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

less m (genitive lesso)

1. benefit, advantage

Declension

Alternative forms

• les

Derived terms

• ro·icc less

Descendants

• Irish: leas
• Manx: lhiass
• Scottish Gaelic: leas

References

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 les”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Pronoun

less

1. Alternative spelling of les (third-person singular masculine of la)

Mutation

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

less

Wikipedia ^pl

Etymology

Borrowed from German Löss.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɛs/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛs
• Syllabification: less

Noun

less m inan

1. (geology) loess

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

• less in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• less in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Swedish

Etymology

Clipping of lessen, pronunciation spelling of ledsen (“sad”), alternatively interpreted as a pronunciation spelling of a clipping of ledsen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛsː/

Adjective

less (comparative mer less, superlative mest less)

1. tired (of something irritating)

   Jag är less på hans jävla tjat!

   I'm tired of his god damn nagging!

Declension

Only used predicatively with the common gender singular. The comparative form lessare and superlative lessast exist but are considered nonstandard, so this word is mostly compared periphrastically.

References

• less in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• less in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• less in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)