- used to introduce the second part of a comparison
- I'm older than her.
- There was more milk in it than coffee.
- He loves me more than you do.
- It was much better than I'd expected.
- You should know better than to behave like that.
- I'd rather email than phone, if that's OK by you.
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- more/less/fewer, etc. than used for comparing amounts, numbers, distances, etc.
- It never takes more than an hour.
- It's less than a mile to the beach.
- There were fewer than twenty people there.
- used in expressions showing that one thing happens straight after another
- No sooner had I sat down than there was a loud knock on the door.
- Hardly had we arrived than the problems started.
Word OriginOld English than(ne), thon(ne), thænne, originally the same word as then.
Idioms
See than in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee than in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishother than usually used in negative sentences
- except
- I don't know any French people other than you.
- We're going away in June but other than that I'll be here all summer.
- (formal) different or in a different way from; not
- I have never known him to behave other than selfishly.
Check pronunciation:
than