Noun: least
| Singular | least |
| Plural | leasts |
Sample Sentences
-
even the least of
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The pastor preached that even the least of God’s creatures deserves freedom from needless or idle cruelty.
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Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me. [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 25:40:]
Nouns inflected like least
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. 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”).
2. The adverb and pronoun are derived from the adjective or determiner.
3. cognates
4. * Old Frisian leist
5. * Old Saxon lēs See: Middle English Nouns '
leste', English Nouns '
less'.