FEW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does few mean? 

• FEW (noun)
  The noun FEW has 1 sense:

1. a small elite group

  Familiarity information: FEW used as a noun is very rare.

• FEW (adjective)
  The adjective FEW has 1 sense:

1. a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by 'a'; a small but indefinite number

  Familiarity information: FEW used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FEW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small elite group

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

it was designed for the discriminating few

Hypernyms ("few" is a kind of...):

elite; elite group (a group or class of persons enjoying superior intellectual or social or economic status)

Derivation:

few (a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by 'a'; a small but indefinite number)

• FEW (adjective)

Comparative: fewer   
Superlative: fewest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

A quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by 'a'; a small but indefinite number

Context example:

few women have led troops in battle

Similar:

a couple of; a few (more than one but indefinitely small in number)

hardly a (very few)

Also:

fewer ((comparative of 'few' used with count nouns) quantifier meaning a smaller number of)

some ((quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity)

Attribute:

multiplicity; numerosity; numerousness (a large number)

Antonym:

many (a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by 'as' or 'too' or 'so' or 'that'; amounting to a large but indefinite number)

Derivation:

few (a small elite group)

fewness (the quality of being small in number)

 Context examples 

However, if the re-injury occurred after a few days, once the wound healing phase had already begun, there was no effect on the meningeal repair process and blood vessels were rebuilt normally.

(Scientists watch the brain’s lining heal after a head injury, National Institutes of Health)

A few minutes later they pulled out from the bank and down the river.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

There were four of them who had come down from London to spend a few days in Lord Avon’s old house.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But it depended upon Steerforth; and he did it with such address, that in a few minutes we were all as easy and as happy as it was possible to be.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

By-and-by, however, as I was curious to know how time was passing, I struck a match, and by its flame looked at my watch; it was within a few minutes of midnight.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Recently however, few studies showed that the acquisition of elementary associations such as stimulus-reflex response is possible during sleep, both in humans and in animals.

(Learning While Sleeping?, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

"If you're trying to find that last few hot spots," Lindsay says, "rather than screening everyone, the dogs might be good enough to go into the villages to find people."

(The Dog's Nose Knows Malaria, Kevin Enochs/VOA)

Abraxane is a form of the anticancer drug paclitaxel and may cause fewer side effects than paclitaxel.

(Abraxane, NCI Dictionary)

Fewer than two hundred showed up at the gates of the base, but no one tried to storm the military base.

(Millions don't turn up to 'storm' US airbase for extraterrestrial evidence, Wikinews)

Spontaneous tumors 46% testes, 16% adrenal, 5% pituitary, 6% skin and ear duct and fewer of other types in males; 21% pituitary, 13% uterus, 11% mammary gland, 6% adrenal and fewer of other types in females.

(ACI, Rat Strain, NCI Thesaurus)