Less crossword clue

The most likely answers for the crossword clue “Less” are FEWER or ACUTE, with 5 letters. Below are 20 answers from 3 to 12 letters, best match first in each length, then what each top answer means and how to tell them apart.

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The best answers, explained

DIM 3 letters · adjective

made dim or less bright “the dimmed houselights brought a hush of anticipation”

EASY 4 letters · adjective

less in demand and therefore readily obtainable “commodities are easy this quarter”

FEWER 5 letters · adjective

(comparative of ‘few’ used with count nouns) quantifier meaning a smaller number of “fewer birds came this year”

LITTLE 6 letters · adjective

low in stature; not tall; describing something or someone with a stature less than normal “a little man”

FALLING 7 letters · adjective

becoming lower or less in degree or value “a falling market”

INFERIOR 8 letters · adjective

of or characteristic of low rank or importance

DECREASED 9 letters · adjective

made less in size or amount or degree

DECREASING 10 letters · adjective

becoming less or smaller

DISCOURAGED 11 letters · adjective

made less hopeful or enthusiastic “felt discouraged by the magnitude of the problem”

CONCENTRATED 12 letters · adjective

gathered together or made less diffuse “their concentrated efforts”

Telling them apart

With 6 squares, LITTLE, SLIGHT, BRIGHT and DIMMED all fit. The first letter tells them all apart: L → LITTLE · S → SLIGHT · B → BRIGHT · D → DIMMED. Fill in that crossing answer first.

With 8 squares, INFERIOR, NEGATIVE and BACKWARD all fit. The first letter tells them all apart: I → INFERIOR · N → NEGATIVE · B → BACKWARD. Fill in that crossing answer first.

What “less” means

• adjective: (comparative of ‘little’ usually used with mass nouns) a quantifier meaning not as great in amount or degree (“of less importance”)
• adjective: (usually preceded by ‘no’) lower in quality (“no less than perfect”)
• adjective: (nonstandard in some uses but often idiomatic with measure phrases) fewer (“less than three weeks”)
• adverb: used to form the comparative of some adjectives and adverbs, indicates that the adjective or adverb is less of something (“less interesting”)

A clue usually points at one of these senses, so the right answer is the one that matches the sense the puzzle means: check it against the crossing words.

About these answers

We match the clue against our own thesaurus and dictionary (Open English WordNet): words that mean the same as LESS, and words whose definition is LESS. We don't copy answers from newspaper puzzles, so a clue that leans on trivia or wordplay may need the crossing letters instead.