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few

[ fyoo ]
/ fyu /
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See synonyms for: few / fewer / fewest / fews on Thesaurus.com

adjective, few·er, few·est.
not many but more than one: Few artists live luxuriously.
noun
(used with a plural verb) a small number or amount: Send me a few.
the few, a special, limited number; the minority: That music appeals to the few.
pronoun
(used with a plural verb) a small number of persons or things: A dozen people volunteered, but few have shown up.
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Idioms about few

    few and far between, at widely separated intervals; infrequent: In Nevada the towns are few and far between.
    quite a few, a fairly large number; many: There were quite a few interesting things to do.

Origin of few

before 900; Middle English fewe,Old English fēawe; cognate with Gothic fawai; akin to Latin paucus few, paulus little, pauper poor, Greek paûros little, few

OTHER WORDS FROM few

o·ver·few, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use few in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for few

few
/ (fjuː) /

determiner
noun
the few a small number of people considered as a classthe few who fell at Thermopylae Compare many (def. 4)

Derived forms of few

fewness, noun

Word Origin for few

Old English fēawa; related to Old High German fao little, Old Norse fār little, silent

undefined few

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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with few

few

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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