less
less Lexical Profile
less Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Smaller in amount, quantity, or degree; not as much.
"The updated recipe calls for less sugar than the traditional version."
Of lower rank, status, or importance.
"Even issues of less significance were carefully addressed during the committee meeting."
• adverb
To a smaller extent, amount, or degree; not so much.
"The new software update makes the application much less complicated for beginners to navigate."
• pronoun
A smaller amount or quantity of something.
"They managed to complete the entire renovation for less than the initial estimate."
• preposition
Minus; after deducting or subtracting a specified amount.
"She received her monthly salary less the standard deductions for taxes and insurance."
Word Nuance & Usage
In formal usage, 'less' is typically used with uncountable or mass nouns (such as 'less water' or 'less time') as well as measurements of distance, money, and time, whereas 'fewer' is preferred for countable plural nouns (such as 'fewer books').
• Rhymes for less
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English læssa (adjective) and læs (adverb), of West Germanic origin and descending from the Proto-Indo-European root *leys- ('small'), which served historically as the comparative counterpart of 'little'.