compar. of few
a smaller number: some left, fewer stayed
fewer Idioms
fewer and fewer
an ever-decreasing number (of): fewer and fewer men are wearing hats
fewer
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"fewer." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/fewer>.
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fewer. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/fewer
Determiner
(superlative fewest)
- The comparative of few; a smaller number.
- Fewer women wear hats these days.
- There are fewer tigers than there were a hundred years ago.
Usage notes
Some regard the use of the determiner less with quantities to be incorrect, stating that less should indicate only a reduction in size or significance, leaving fewer to indicate a smaller quantity:
- Their troubles are fewer than ours, meaning "Their troubles are not so numerous as ours."
- Their troubles are less than ours, meaning "Their troubles are not so great as ours."
In typical usage this distinction is absent, and less has been widely understood and commonly used as a synonym for fewer since it first appeared in Old English as læs.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"fewer." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/fewer>.
APA Style
fewer. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/fewer
