less than

less than (plural less thans)

1. The character <, denoting having a smaller amount or number.

• less-than sign

• greater than

• less than or equal to

less than (not comparable)

1. (predicative) Inferior in consideration, rank, or importance.
   • 2020 March 1, Frank Bruni, “Mayor Pete Flew Sky High”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     On Sunday night in South Bend, where he delivered a poignant valediction to his campaign before hundreds of cheering supporters, he noted that it had “sent a message to every kid out there wondering if whatever marks them out as different means they are somehow destined to be less than.”

   • 2022 May 5, Eleanor Gordon-Smith, “I’ve got a seven-month-old baby. How do I make sure she doesn’t feel the same body shame I did?”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     I worry for her. I know it sounds silly but the world is judged on looks and I don’t want her to feel the same, less-than, body-shamed feelings that I did. How do I go about making sure she doesn’t feel less-than or not-as-good-as based on her looks?

   • 2022 December 4, “SNL's Chloe Fineman Gets Pete Davidson Appeal, Calls Him 'Deeply Charming'”, in TooFab‎^[3]:

     Perhaps too much continues to be made about Davidson's romantic life, with even him cracking jokes about it back when he was engaged to Ariana Grande. He joked that he was clearly dating up, referring to his apparently less than looks compared to Grande.

   • 2022 December 20, Mike Beebe, “[Letters to the Editor] Men keep failing women”, in Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, Peterborough, N.H., page 7, column 6:

     However, if these guys’ moral values were consistent regarding the basic sanctity of life, they wouldn’t keep defunding the social safety nets that protect children after birth. But rather now they crucify poorly resourced young mothers with “failure-to-protect” laws, so women who are “less than” get lengthy terms relative to male child-abusers.

When used as an adjective, less than can never be used attributively, but it is also ungrammatical to use it as a postpositive immediately after the word modified. Rather, it must be used postpositively as part of a complement.

• inequality

• Inequality (mathematics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• nathless