Meanings
superlative fewest
- comparativecomparative degree of few; a smaller number.
Fewer women wear hats these days.
3 more examples
There are fewer tigers than there were a hundred years ago.
Construction of the station and approach line involved considerable engineering work and the demolition of no fewer than 540 houses and a church, […].
1957 August 28, “Notes and News; Tithebarn Street Station, Liverpool”, in Railway Magazine, page 589This hypothesis goes by many names, including group resistence, the threshold effect, and the gender paradox. Because the hypothesis holds such wide appeal, it is worth revisiting the logic behind it. The hypothesis is built on the factual observation that fewer females than males act antisocially.
2001 September 27, Terrie E. Moffitt, Avshalom Caspi, Michael Rutter, Phil A. Silva, Sex Differences in Antisocial Behaviour: Conduct Disorder, Delinquency, and Violence in the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 151 - hypercorrectLess; a smaller amount of something non-integral commonly expressed as an integer
Leaving from my home in Alameda, the heavily BART-assisted journey took fewer than five hours round trip.
2026 May 7, Peter Hartlaub, “This former Bay Area rail line is a biking paradise. And you don’t need a car to get there”, in San Francisco Chronicle, page A11
Synonyms & antonyms
adjective(comparative of ‘few’ used with count nouns) quantifier meaning a smaller number of
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishfewere
- Englishfewer
From Middle English fewere, equivalent to few + -er.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek ἐλάσσων
- ἐλάσσων (elássōn)comparative of few; a smaller number
Arabic أَقَلّ
- أَقَلّ (ʔaqall)comparative of few; a smaller number
Catalan menys
- menyscomparative of few; a smaller number
Chinese Mandarin 較少 /较少, 更少
- 較少 /较少 (jiào shǎo)comparative of few; a smaller number
- 更少 (gèng shǎo)comparative of few; a smaller number
- 少 (shǎo)comparative of few; a smaller number
Danish færre
- færrecomparative of few; a smaller number
Dutch minder
- mindercomparative of few; a smaller number
Finnish harvempi, vähemmän
- harvempicomparative of few; a smaller number
- vähemmäncomparative of few; a smaller number
French moins (de)
- moins (de)comparative of few; a smaller number
German weniger
- wenigercomparative of few; a smaller number
Greek λιγότερος
- λιγότερος (ligóteros)comparative of few; a smaller number
Hebrew פחות
- פחותcomparative of few; a smaller number
Hungarian kevesebb
- kevesebbcomparative of few; a smaller number
Irish lú
- lúcomparative of few; a smaller number
Italian meno
- menocomparative of few; a smaller number
Latin paucior
- pauciorcomparative of few; a smaller number
Māori iti iho
- iti ihocomparative of few; a smaller number
Norwegian færre
- færrecomparative of few; a smaller number
Polish mniej
- mniejcomparative of few; a smaller number
Portuguese menos
- menoscomparative of few; a smaller number
Russian ме́ньше
- ме́ньше (ménʹše)comparative of few; a smaller number
Spanish menos
- menoscomparative of few; a smaller number
Swedish färre
- färrecomparative of few; a smaller number
Ukrainian ме́ньше
- ме́ньше (ménʹše)comparative of few; a smaller number
Welsh llai
- llaicomparative of few; a smaller number
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with fewer
All rhymes →Cite this entry
fewer. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fewer
“fewer.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fewer. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fewer,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fewer.
Source: fewer on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.