lesser
part of speech
adjective (lesser)
meaning for a pupil
1) Lesser means smaller in amount or size: the lesser of two numbers. tree →
2) Lesser means less important or not as good: a lesser prize. tree →
3) «The lesser of two evils» is the less bad of two bad choices. tree →
4) In names of animals and plants, lesser means the smaller kind: the lesser spotted woodpecker. tree →
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 →
- Subtract the lesser number from the greater. tree →
- The lesser amount is 12. tree →
- Choose the lesser of the two prices. tree →
- Staying home was the lesser of two evils. tree →
- He won a lesser prize at the science fair. tree →
- The lesser panda is also called the red panda. tree →
- To a lesser degree, the cold also hurt the crops. tree →
- There were two festivals of this name, the Lesser and the Greater Panathenaea. tree →
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, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.