less than

Idioms  

1. Not at all or hardly at all. For example, He had a less than favorable view of the matter, or She had a less than adequate grasp of the subject. This expression uses less in the sense of “a smaller quantity, number, or extent than is implied,” a usage dating from about a.d. 1000. The same sense appears in less than no time, a hyperbolic term for a very short time (as in Don't worry, he'll be here in less than no time) that dates from about 1800.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

less than

Pixar had a $6 billion market capitalization, and Disney at the time had less than $2 billion of cash on its balance sheet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

It happened less than 24 hours after two passengers were seriously injured in a separate derailment in East Sussex.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

It helped that, from 1982 to 2021, the rate on a 30-year mortgage collapsed from a peak of 18% to less than 3%.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026

"Deploying this admittedly less than lethal technology, in an era when we're really not all that interested in providing training to the officers about how to use that technology, really is alarming," Sandweg said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

Mae’s hair couldn’t have grown so much in less than two months.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse