least
Chiefly preceded by the: superlative form of little: most littleChiefly preceded by the: superlative form of little: most little; the smallest amount or extent of something.
» I have at least ten books.
Ich habe mindestens zehn Bücher. — MUIRIEL
У мене є принаймні десять книжок. — deniko
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 sensesChiefly preceded by the: superlative form of little: most little; the smallest amount or extent of something.
I’m giving least of all towards her present.
Examples
2197 sentencesI have at least ten books.
У мене є принаймні десять книжок. — deniko
deIch habe mindestens zehn Bücher. — MUIRIEL
That's the least of my problems.
Це найменша з моїх проблем. — deniko
Everybody needs at least one close friend.
Кожному потрібен хоба б один близький друг. — deniko
deJeder braucht wenigstens einen guten Freund. — raggione
Everyone needs at least one close friend.
Кожному потрібен хоба б один близький друг. — deniko
deJeder braucht wenigstens einen guten Freund. — raggione
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
Origin
The adjective, determiner, and noun are derived from Middle English leste, lest, last (“(aThe 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
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 dictionaryDictionary 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.