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# lesser

«lesser» in Mova's school dictionary: **smaller in amount or size: the lesser of two numbers** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (lesser)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Lesser means smaller in amount or size: the lesser of two numbers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#m1)

2) Lesser means less important or not as good: a lesser prize. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#m2)

3) «The lesser of two evils» is the less bad of two bad choices. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#m3)

4) In names of animals and plants, lesser means the smaller kind: the lesser spotted woodpecker. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In maths it is a comparison: the smaller of two numbers; «subtract the lesser number from the greater» gives the difference. In everyday life it means less important or less bad. In science some animal names use it for a smaller species.

### examples

- Which is the lesser number, 34 or 43? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#x1)
- Subtract the lesser number from the greater. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#x2)
- The lesser amount is 12. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#x3)
- Choose the lesser of the two prices. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#x4)
- Staying home was the lesser of two evils. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#x5)
- He won a lesser prize at the science fair. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#x6)
- The lesser panda is also called the red panda. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#x7)
- To a lesser degree, the cold also hurt the crops. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#x8)
- There were two festivals of this name, the Lesser and the Greater Panathenaea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/#x9)

### note

«Lesser» goes before a noun (the lesser number); it is not used like «less than». Do not write «lesser than»; say «less than» or «smaller than». Maths: it points to the smaller amount; with «greater» it usually means a difference. Trap: lesser is not «less than by», which gives a number to subtract.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «lesser» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lesser/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.