less – English noun declension

Noun: less

Singular

less

Sample Sentences

Nouns inflected like less

greyware, chronotropy, urgrund, cytosorting, homekeeping, pedobaiting, winterdress, JLNS, rumpology, hopkinsiaxanthin, enchylemma, further education, hexobendine, humdrumminess, unobligingness, backscroll, telocinobufagin, dosulepin, mensuralism, crème de framboise, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)

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”). 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”).
2. 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”).
3. Verb from Middle English lessen, from the determiner.
4. Noun from Middle English lesse, from the determiner. See: Middle English Nouns 'les', Old English Nouns 'lǣs', Old English Nouns 'lǣssa', Middle English Nouns 'lesse'.

Verbs referencing "less"

English Nouns least.