than
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
than/ðən/
▶conjunction & preposition
- 1 introducing the second element in a comparison.
- 2 used to introduce an exception or contrast.
- 3 used in expressions indicating one thing happening immediately after another.
usage: Traditionally, it has been said that personal pronouns following than and as should be in the subjective rather than the objective case: he is smaller than she rather than he is smaller than her. This is based on an analysis of than and as by which they are conjunctions and the personal pronoun (in this case, ‘she’) is standing in for a full clause: he is smaller than she is. However, it is arguable that than and as are prepositions rather than conjunctions, similar grammatically to words like with or for. By this analysis the personal pronoun is objective, and constructions such as he is smaller than her are perfectly acceptable in standard English.
'than' also found in these Oxford entries:
above
- absolute alcohol
- absolute majority
- abstract
- academic
- acid
- actual bodily harm
- acute
- adaptor
- ad hominem
- adjunct
- advance
- adverse
- aeroplane
- affirm
- a fortiori
- aggregate
- ago
- airmiss
- airship
- à la carte
- ale
- alkalic
- alkaline
- allusive
- alright
- alternative
- alternative fuel
- ambiguity
- ambiguous
- ample
- an
- anachronism
- analogue
- analphabetic
- ancestor
- and
- andantino
- animal
- anti-personnel
- anyone
- applied
- appointive
- a priori
- arioso
- arrange
- arrowhead
- as
- aslope
- ass
