How do you use the word "less" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "less": You are not less pretty than her. You must be less impatient.

Less Meaning

/lɛs/

Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

advcomparative degree of little

advUsed for constructing syntactic diminutive comparatives of adjectives and adverbs.

Sentence Examples

You are not less pretty than her.

You must be less impatient.

The doctor told me to eat less red meat and dairy.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

inferior

Antonyms:

more superior

CEFR Practice Quiz

She earns ____ than her brother each month because she works fewer hours.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

This new engine is designed to be much more efficient, consuming far ____ fuel than the previous model tonight.

Word Origin & History

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.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"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." — 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:

"This section of space is much less empty than that between the stars, […]" — 1957, Lester Del Rey, Rockets Through Space: The Story of Man's Preparations to Explore the Universe:

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

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

"Those Rattels are somewhat like the chape of a Rapier, but lesse, which they take from the taile of a snake." — 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 141:

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