less

English Online Dictionary. What means less‎? What does less mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɛs/
• 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
2. Used for constructing syntactic diminutive comparatives of adjectives and adverbs.
3. To a smaller extent or degree.

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. [from 11th c.]

   Antonym: greater
2. A smaller amount of; not as much. [from 12th c.]
3. (proscribed) Fewer; a smaller number of. [from 9th c. at latest]

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

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" [obituary notice], 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.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

less (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Lesser; smaller.

Noun

less (uncountable)

1. A smaller amount or quantity.

Etymology 2

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

Conjunction

less

1. (dialectal, nonstandard) unless

References

• “less”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “less”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “less”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• ELSS, SELs, SLEs

Hungarian

Etymology

les +‎ -j

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈlɛʃː]
• 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

Derived by Irslinger from Proto-Celtic *lexstus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂lek- (“to protect”).

An old etymology suggested by Stokes derives this from Proto-Celtic *lesso-, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”), similar to Proto-Slavic *plodъ (“fruit”). However, the advent of laryngeal theory makes this etymology impossible, and Irslinger criticizes this derivation for having an unclear suffixation process.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [l͈ʲes]

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

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 les”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [lʲesʲ]

Pronoun

less

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

Mutation

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from German Löss.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛs/
• 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)

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)