than

Universal Words preposition, conjunction 1 used to introduce the second part of a comparison: I'm older than her. * There was more whisky in it than soda. * 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 e-mail than phone, if that's OK by you. 2 more / less / fewer, etc. ~ 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. 3 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. IDIOMS see OTHERadj.