Meaning of lesser in English

lesser

adjective [ before noun ]

/ˈles.ər/ us

/ˈles.ɚ/

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not as great in size, amount, quality, importance, etc. as something or someone else:

The charge of murder was altered to the lesser (= less serious) charge of manslaughter.

They lost games needlessly to lesser (= worse) teams.

Using disposable nappies does not make you a lesser parent.

to a lesser extent Ethiopia and, to a lesser extent, Kenya will be badly affected by the drought.

to a lesser degree Thundery showers are possible tomorrow and, to a lesser degree, for the remainder of the week.

to a greater or lesser extent Most residents have been affected to a greater or lesser extent.

a lesser person, man, woman, etc.

used to say what would have happened if someone had not been so strong, brave, determined, skilled, etc.:

He was subjected to the kind of abuse that might have made a lesser person burst into tears.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Of little or less importance

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lesser | American Dictionary

lesser

adjective [ not gradable ]

/ˈles·ər/

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not as great in size, amount, or importance as something else:

Texas and, to a lesser degree, Oklahoma will be affected by the drought.

Idiom

the lesser of two evils

(Definition of lesser from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of lesser

lesser

Students at a lower level of proficiency benefited from the first approach, whereas students at a higher level did so to a lesser extent.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

One argument sometimes raised against it is that it would lead to plea-bargaining, and thus to offenders escaping with lesser convictions and lesser sentences.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Such theories still move us from lesser to greater conditions of intelligibility.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They had some support amongst officials at court, but they had not troubled to build up support amongst the magnates or the lesser landowners.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They have greater verbal and lesser spatial and mathematical ability, and less self-confidence and competitiveness.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Given women's lesser upper-body strength as compared with men's, a positive evaluation of violence helps to legitimate male domination.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We have assumed that all objective functions are" desirable" in that we prefer greater to lesser objective function values.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

One is simply moved in one direction or the other in greater or lesser awareness.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Less successful proctors, petition-drawers and to a lesser extent court officials were dependent for their livelihoods on establishing a reputation for effectiveness.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Clearly, as with the existing" subjective" and" departmental" analyses so the clinical analysis of expenditure may be provided in greater or lesser degrees of details.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To a lesser extent material was supplied from the south.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

On the contrary they are a natural feature of the human condition, present in everyone to a greater or lesser degree.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Only heaven and the sun would remain, the latter appearing as the lesser of the two works which would endure.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When we act paternalistically towards someone we imply that he is inferior to us by virtue of his lesser capacity to look after himself.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Student comments evidenced a high deg ree of task and strateg ic knowledge and, to a lesser deg ree, person knowledge.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

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