nothing less than
37
4.9
- idiom
:
nada menos que
- I mean, it's nothing less than a war for control of the future.
- demand nothing less than
- want nothing less than
- seek nothing less than
And so just honestly trying to be like my best self and I have this mantra now of like nothing less than fully alive.
- And so just honestly trying to be like my best self and I have this mantra now of like nothing less than fully alive.
- And then the narrator is filling in the gaps here, which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of Earth's supreme terror, the nightmare corpse city of Relay.
Examples
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Because you believe in nothing less than the best.
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I expect nothing less than your full cooperation.
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This, and nothing less than this, should be our common goal.
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We will accept nothing less than full victory.
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I expect nothing less than perfection in concept and execution.
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You were demanding, and you expected nothing less than perfection from your students.
Academic text (1999) -
The goal was nothing less than to design the postwar international security and economic architecture.
Academic text (2011) -
Now as then, the broader implications of this upheaval are likely to be nothing less than revolutionary.
Academic text (1999) -
If that's true, it's nothing less than a major civic tragedy, one we should not allow to continue.
Academic text (2012) -
We will accept nothing less than full victory in this competition.
Synonyms
39
4.9
To say that something is exactly as said to show strong feeling
How Emphatic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'nothing' + the comparative frame 'less than' to convey 'not any amount lower than X' (i.e. 'at least X' or emphatic approval), so a learner who knows the words and basic comparative syntax can infer the core meaning. However, the emphatic, formulaic force of this construction and the negative-comparative composition are somewhat idiomatic and may not be fully predictable without exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Nothing less than creates a clear picture: imagine you want a full cup or a perfect result and you will accept nothing that is less than that. Saying nothing less than X means you will not accept anything smaller or weaker, so it shows 'exactly' or 'the very least' is X.