lest

/lɛst/conjunction

lest is spelled L-E-S-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 14,106th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a conjunction, lest means “For fear that; that not; in order to prevent something from happening; in case” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in lest?

Letters	4: L-E-S-T
Syllables	1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	3.5 times per million words; the 14,106th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search
Same letters	lets

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is lest?

Lest appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 14,106th most frequent word form in the list.

lest0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce lest?

/lɛst/
/liːst/

Lest has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-lest.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with lest?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as lest.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: lets.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

What does lest mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

conjunction

1
For fear that; that not; in order to prevent something from happening; in case.
He won't go outside, lest he be eaten by those ravenous eagles.
2
that (without the negative particle; introduces the reason for an emotion.)
There was danger/alarm lest the plan become known.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Lest in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	de peur que, sans quoi (for fear that)
German	fürchtend, dass, in der Furcht, dass (for fear that), bevor, auf dass nicht (that … not)
Portuguese	para que, a fim de que ... não (for fear that)
Spanish	no vaya a ser que (for fear that)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does lest come from?

c. 1200, contracted from Middle English les te (“less that”), from Old English þȳ lǣs þe (“whereby less that”), from þȳ (instrumental case of demonstrative article þæt (“that”)) + lǣs (“less”) + þe (“that,” relative particle). The þȳ was dropped and the remaining two words contracted into leste.