Meaning

3 senses

  1. Chiefly preceded by the: superlative form of little: most little.

    Smallest in amount or extent.

    He earns the least money in his family.

    Of all the sisters, she has the least patience.

    geringst, kleinst, minimalst

    наиме́ньшийnaiménʹšij

    найменшийnajmenšyj

  2. Followed by a plural noun: the smallest number of; the fewest.

    Whichever queue contains the least items by the time this logic branch is reached will be executed first.

  3. Any, no matter how small in amount or extent.

    not even the least amount

    It is indicative of his true character that he could not manage to show even the least bit of courtesy in such a situation.

Examples

2197 sentences

  1. I have at least ten books.

    У мене є принаймні десять книжок. — deniko

    deIch habe mindestens zehn Bücher. — MUIRIEL

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. That's the least of my problems.

    Це найменша з моїх проблем. — deniko

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. Everybody needs at least one close friend.

    Кожному потрібен хоба б один близький друг. — deniko

    deJeder braucht wenigstens einen guten Freund. — raggione

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. Everyone needs at least one close friend.

    Кожному потрібен хоба б один близький друг. — deniko

    deJeder braucht wenigstens einen guten Freund. — raggione

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. These books are worth reading at least once.

    Ці книги варто прочитати хоча б один раз. — aandrusiak

    ruЭти книги стоит прочитать хотя бы раз. — Biga

    deDiese Bücher sind es wert, zumindest einmal gelesen zu werden. — nemoli

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

8 languages
Українська
By meaning 1
smallest in amount or extent:
Русский
By meaning 1
smallest in amount or extent:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
smallest in amount or extent:

Origin

The adjective, determiner, and noun are derived from Middle English leste, lest, last (“(a

The adjective, determiner, and noun are derived from Middle English leste, lest, last (“(adjective) smallest, least; (noun) smallest thing, etc.; person or thing least in importance; etc.”), from Old English lǣst, a contraction of læsast, læsest (“least”) (also lærest in only one source), from Proto-Germanic *laisistaz (“smallest, least”), from *laisiz (“less”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂is- or *leh₃is-; whence modern English less) + *-istaz (“suffix forming superlative forms of some adjectives”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Antonyms

2 antonyms
greatestmostA2

Word family

6 related words
Derivedalderleastat leastleastnessleastwiseleast worstnot least

Collocations

12 patterns
  • at least least
  • least least
  • least least three
  • least least once
  • least three
  • least once a
  • least once
  • the least least
  • least least one
  • least least thirty
  • least least a
  • least three times

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
leaseB2leashB2leasingleatherA2leatherback

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

least — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto