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• /lɛs/
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• rhymes with -ɛs
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• CMU ARPABET: L EH1 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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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”). 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.

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

119 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Arabic: أَقَلّ (ʔaqall) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Arabic: أقل (ʔaʔall) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Belarusian: менш (mjenš) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Bourguignon: moins — to a smaller extent or degree
• Bulgarian: по-ма́лко (po-málko) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Catalan: menys — to a smaller extent or degree
• Chinese Mandarin: 更少 (gèng shǎo) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Chinese Mandarin: 不太 (bù tài) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Chinese Mandarin: 不那么 (bù nàme) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Czech: méně — to a smaller extent or degree
• Dutch: minder — to a smaller extent or degree
• Esperanto: malpli — to a smaller extent or degree
• Estonian: vähem — to a smaller extent or degree
• Finnish: vähemmän — to a smaller extent or degree
• French: moins — to a smaller extent or degree
• Friulian: mancul — to a smaller extent or degree
• German: weniger — to a smaller extent or degree
• Gothic: 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐍃 (mins) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Greek: λιγότερο (ligótero) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Haitian Creole: mwens — to a smaller extent or degree
• Hebrew: פָּחוֹת (pakhot) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Hindi: न्यून (nyūn) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Hindi: अल्प (alp) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Hungarian: kevésbé — to a smaller extent or degree
• Ido: min — to a smaller extent or degree
• Interlingua: minus — to a smaller extent or degree
• Italian: meno — to a smaller extent or degree
• Japanese: ...より少ない — to a smaller extent or degree
• Japanese: それほど...ない (sorehodo... nai) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Ladino: manko — to a smaller extent or degree
• Ladino: menos — to a smaller extent or degree
• Latin: minus — to a smaller extent or degree
• Latvian: mazāk — to a smaller extent or degree
• Macedonian: помалку (pomalku) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Malay: kurang — to a smaller extent or degree
• Norman: mouôins — to a smaller extent or degree
• Norman: meins — to a smaller extent or degree
• Norwegian: mindre — to a smaller extent or degree
• Persian: کمتر (kamtar) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Picard: moins — to a smaller extent or degree
• Polish: mniej — to a smaller extent or degree
• Portuguese: menos — to a smaller extent or degree
• Russian: ме́ньше (ménʹše) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Russian: ме́нее (méneje) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Serbo-Croatian: мање — to a smaller extent or degree
• Serbo-Croatian: manje — to a smaller extent or degree
• Serbo-Croatian: manj — to a smaller extent or degree
• Serbo-Croatian: manjše — to a smaller extent or degree
• Slovak: menej — to a smaller extent or degree
• Slovene: manj — to a smaller extent or degree
• Spanish: menos — to a smaller extent or degree
• Spanish: en menos — to a smaller extent or degree
• Old Spanish: menos — to a smaller extent or degree
• Swedish: lite — to a smaller extent or degree
• Swedish: mindre — to a smaller extent or degree
• Ukrainian: ме́нше (ménše) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Ukrainian: менш (menš) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Urdu: کم (kam) — to a smaller extent or degree
• Arabic: أَقَلّ (ʔaqall) — not as much
• Arabic: أقل (ʔaʔal) — not as much
• Bulgarian: по-малко (po-malko) — not as much
• Catalan: menys — not as much
• Dutch: minder — not as much
• Finnish: vähemmän — not as much
• French: moins — not as much
• Galician: menos — not as much
• German: weniger — not as much
• Gothic: 𐍆𐌰𐍅𐌹𐌶𐌰 (fawiza) — not as much
• Hungarian: kevesebb — not as much
• Icelandic: síður — not as much
• Italian: meno — not as much
• Ladino: manko — not as much
• Ladino: menos — not as much
• Latin: minus — not as much
• Luxembourgish: manner — not as much
• Luxembourgish: wéineger — not as much
• Norwegian: mindre — not as much
• Portuguese: menos — not as much
• Romanian: mai puțin — not as much
• Russian: ме́ньше (ménʹše) — not as much
• Lower Sorbian: mjeńšy — not as much
• Spanish: menos — not as much
• Old Spanish: menos — not as much
• Swedish: mindre — not as much
• Ukrainian: ме́ньше (ménʹše) — not as much
• Arabic: أَقَلّ (ʔaqall) — smaller number of
• Arabic: أقل (ʔaʔal) — smaller number of
• Bulgarian: по-малко (po-malko) — smaller number of
• Dutch: minder — smaller number of
• Finnish: vähemmän — smaller number of
• German: weniger — smaller number of
• Gothic: 𐍆𐌰𐍅𐌹𐌶𐌰 (fawiza) — smaller number of
• Ancient Greek: ἐλάσσων (elássōn) — smaller number of
• Hungarian: kevesebb — smaller number of
• Indonesian: lebih sedikit — smaller number of
• Norwegian: færre — smaller number of
• Portuguese: menos — smaller number of
• Russian: ме́ньше (ménʹše) — smaller number of
• Sicilian: cchiù picca — smaller number of
• Swedish: färre — smaller number of
• Ukrainian: ме́ньше (ménʹše) — smaller number of
• Arabic: نَاقِص (nāqiṣ) — not including
• Arabic: ناقص (naʔeṣ) — not including
• Bulgarian: без (bez) — not including
• Catalan: menys — not including
• Finnish: paitsi — not including
• Finnish: pois lukien — not including
• Finnish: lukuun ottamatta — not including
• Norwegian: minus — not including
• Norwegian: fratrukket — not including
• Portuguese: menos — not including
• Portuguese: exceto — not including
• Portuguese: fora — not including
• Russian: ми́нус (mínus) — not including
• Russian: за вы́четом (za výčetom) — not including
• Bulgarian: намалявам (namaljavam) — to make less
• Bulgarian: намаля (namalja) — to make less
• German: verringern — to make less
• German: verkleinern — to make less