A1

than English

Learners of English as a second language usually know the word than once they have reached the level A1 – Beginner. English words by learner level A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 C2

Meaning than meaning

What does than mean?

Definitions in simple English

than Preposition

— Used to compare two things that are not equal. The tree is higher than the house. He is better than me. It was much better than I'd expected.

than conjunction

— (obsolete, outside, dialects, usually used with for) Because; for.

— Used in comparisons, to introduce the basis of comparison.

than preposition

— Introduces a comparison

than adverb

— (now, chiefly, dialectal, _, or a misspelling) At that time; then.

Synonyms than synonyms

What other words have the same or similar meaning as than?

than English » English

from

about

to

that

more than

compared to

but

before

as

where

when

up to

unless

still

since

save

rather than

rather

out of

other

of

more

in comparison with

except

apart from

Topics than topics

What do people use than to talk about?

States Quantity

More

• What words indicate an amount that is more than an amount already mentioned?
  more than over and above as well as plus in addition to on top of
• What words indicate that the actual number is more than a particular number?
  more over above beyond greater than in excess of upwards of plus at least
• What words refer to something being more than a particular number or amount?
  be more than be greater than exceed outnumber be up on pass go past surpass

States Quality Type, kind

Compare

• What words refer to comparing one thing with another?
  compare comparison contrast than comparable

States Quantity More

Less

• What words describe something that is less than another thing in number or amount?
  less fewer not as much not so much not as many not so many lower to a lesser degree to a lesser extent be in the minority fewer and fewer less and less not more than at the most
• What words indicate that something is less than a particular number or amount?
  less than under below lower within minus

States Quality Type, kind Compare

Same

• What words describe two things that are the same?
  same identical indistinguishable can't tell the difference can't tell them apart be no different from match be a carbon copy word for word be synonymous with be no better than be nothing more than

Language and thought Emotion Feel good Like, love

Prefer

• What words refer to preferring something?
  prefer preferably in preference to favor like something better like this more than that have a preference give me something any day! be partial to

Social behavior Conflict War

Defeat

• What words refer to defeating someone in a game or other competition?
  beat defeat outplay be more than match for

Daily life Food Eat

Manner of eating

• What words refer to eating more than your share?
  eat more than your share be greedy

States Quantity All

Only

• What words indicate that there is only a particular number or amount of something?
  only just no more than all

States Quantity All Exact

Approximate

• What words indicate an approximate number when the actual number is possibly more?
  or so odd or more at least and maybe more barely hardly little more than scarcely

States Quantity

Enough

• What words refer to having more than enough, but not too much?
  more than enough plenty ample

States Quantity Enough

Extra

• What words indicate that there is more than enough of something?
  plenty of more than enough bags of in large quantities plentiful ample abundant an abundance of in abundance copious galore to spare

States Quality Type, kind Compare

Other

• What words refer to another thing?
  other another different else other than

States Time Relative time

Before

• What words indicate that something must be done before a particular time?
  before by not later than at the latest

States Time Relative time Right time

Early

• What words indicate that something will happen no earlier than a particular time?
  at the earliest no earlier than

States Time Relative time Right time

Late

• What words indicate that something will happen no later than a particular time?
  no later than at the latest

States Time Speed

Quick

• What words describe an action that is done extremely quickly?
  at light speed faster than a speeding bullet just a blur

States Location Here, there On

Above

• What words indicate that something is above something else?
  above higher than over overhang up above super- supra- on high

Grammar Very Degree

To a larger degree

• What words indicate that something is larger than another thing in degree?
  more than

Grammar Very Degree

To a smaller degree

• What words indicate that something is smaller than another thing in degree?
  less than lower

Grammar Semantic constituents related to verbs Epistemic moods

Probably

• What words indicate that something is very probably true
  very probably very likely there is a strong likelihood there is a strong probability almost certain be more than likely in all probability ten to one

Grammar Connected with, related Coordinate relations But

Instead

• What words indicate that something is true of one thing instead of another thing?
  instead rather than in place of in preference to in favor of in lieu

Examples than examples

How do I use than in a sentence?

Simple sentences

You're in better shape than I am.

Better late than never.

Your income is three times larger than mine.

I don't like you any more than you like me.

I love you more than you love me.

Gold is heavier than iron.

Gold is more precious than iron.

Gold is heavier than silver.

We walked more quickly than usual.

No sooner had it stopped raining than a beautiful rainbow appeared.

Generally speaking, women live longer than men by almost ten years.

I'd rather stay home than go alone.

Mike earns no less than three hundred dollars a day.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

I don't like it when mathematicians who know much more than I do can't express themselves explicitly.

I don't like it when mathematicians who know much more than I do can't express themselves clearly.

Their communication may be much more complex than we thought.

I lived for more than a month in Nagoya.

It took me more than two hours to translate a few pages of English.

Better to be hated for who you are than loved for who you're not.

Most scientific breakthroughs are nothing else than the discovery of the obvious.

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

It is easier to hit on people on the Internet than in the street.

Though his stay in Europe was transient, Spenser felt he had learned much more about interactions with other people from traveling than he did at college.

The depravity of the king's deeds lead the people to believe he was nothing more than a tyrant that needed to be overthrown.

What you don't have is better than what you do have.

Life in prison is worse than the life of an animal.

More than 90 percent of visits to a web page are from search engines.

A known mistake is better than an unknown truth.

The situation is worse than we believed.

Movie subtitles

Chaeyoon didn't you say you loved me more than yourself?

More than bloodthirsty.. These monsters are shit.

Your kind words are more than I am worthy of!

More rats than expected are confused. aren't they?

I'd sooner die than sign that!

As recently as the 1 980s, the average American was 7 0 times richer than the average Chinese.

By contrast, it took the founder of the Ming dynasty 21 years to build a wall more than 20 miles long around his capital city, Nanjing.

The gate where I'm sitting could house more than 3,000 soldiers.

The ravages of the Black Death, the bubonic plague that had devastated Europe in the early 1 4th century, had reduced the city's population to around 40,000, less than a 20th the size of Nanjing's.

From 1 500, anyone in China found building a ship with more than two masts was liable to the death penalty.

Was it because a war in Annam, modern-day Vietnam, turned out to be more expensive than anyone had expected?

As we'II see, there was more than one killer app, but the one that really started the ball rolling was surely competition - both the main driver of capitalism and of the fragmented European state system.

In 1 498, more than 80 years after the Chinese explorer Zheng He had landed at Malindi on the Kenyan coast, Vasco da Gama turned up.

And what of the english, whose territorial ambitions had once extended no further than France and whose one big economic idea had been to sell wool to the italians?

Yes! Your kind words are more than I am worthy of!

We became usedto it and knew no better than the Sun stood at the Centre and we orbited around it.

They contain nothing more than columns of numbers, indicating the positions and brightness of all stars on the plates.

New observations indicated that the Universe must be much bigger than what Kapteyn had proposed.

That is more easily said than done, because where to hide?

And in the first case the system has more energy than in the second case.

At a wavelength of 21 cm we could expect more radiation than at all the other wavelengths around it.

The Dutch part of the map looks sharper than the Australian part, because of the slightly different methods of calculation used.

Some Parisian newspapers wrote that we're more barbarian than the barbarians.

It's more important than blood, more important than anything!

Of course. Well, she's more than my servant.

The hissing of bullets is worth more than freshwater.

One week of catching, a kid can make more than two years worth of allowance.

I'd like to shoot hoops more than you can imagine.

This goes higher than us.

You're stronger than you think.

If you're looking for friends, you can do a lot better than Derek.

Derek knows much more than Scott how bad things can get.

I trust you more than anyone!

And the idea that she's going out with somebody who, more than likely, would kill her, I think, is what drives her to break them up. Are you having sex with my daughter?

Season three is going to be bloodier and sexier and sweatier than any season before.

I'm probably, without knowing it, less lonely than I have been in a long time because I'm interacting with people more often than I have in many years.

We are both smarter than everyone else here.

I think it's safer here than being back at camp where a bunch of people don't like me thanks to you, making those wild accusations.

Why is a two-wheeled car also more reliable than a single-wheeled car?

News and current affairs

One successful gold investor recently explained to me that stock prices languished for a more than a decade before the Dow Jones index crossed the 1,000 mark in the early 1980's.

Indeed, another critical fundamental factor that has been sustaining high gold prices might prove far more ephemeral than globalization.

Today, the mood is much grimmer, with references to 1929 and 1931 beginning to abound, even if some governments continue to behave as if the crisis was more classical than exceptional.

Everyone seems to be a loser, even if some are more affected than others.

The consequences of 1989 ended up being less enduring than many observers, including me, would have assumed.

But the West's key features, democracy and the rule of law, have taken a far more severe battering at the hands of their defenders than by their attackers.

Second, and more importantly, our leaders must seek to calm, rather than exploit, public anxiety.

In a matter of hours, more than 3,000 innocent people, mostly Americans, but also people from 115 other countries, had their lives suddenly and violently taken from them.

Terrorists and terrorism cannot be eliminated any more than we can rid the world of disease.

But, in some cases, the harmonized standard could be more stringent than some countries' original standards.

If the EU and the US made these two commitments, the rest of the world could follow the TTIP negotiations with hope, rather than trepidation.

The Washington Consensus of free-market reforms for developing countries ended more than two decades ago.

All too often, the fight is about turf, rather than about the most effective way to speed help to the poor.

The fact that the man was black might or might not have made the cop go for his handcuffs even sooner than he might normally have done.

Now, emboldened by continuing appreciation, some are suggesting that gold could be headed even higher than that.

Sure, some might argue that inflation-indexed bonds offer a better and more direct inflation hedge than gold.

Second, whereas democracy and market capitalism appeared as clear - if more fragile than expected - winners in 1989, it is difficult in 2009, with the spread of the global crisis, to distinguish winners from losers.

Yet, history is unfair, and the US, despite its greater responsibility for today's global crisis, may emerge in better shape than most countries from the morass.

We can only hope that, in the end, the consequences of 2009 similarly prove to be far less dramatic than we now - intuitively and in our historical reflexes - feel them to be.

At the same time, emerging-market central banks need to accumulate gold reserves, which they still hold in far lower proportion than do rich-country central banks.

Helping to make societies in the Middle East and elsewhere more democratic might reduce the alienation that can lead to radicalism and worse, but this is easier said than done.