better vs less

better

adv
  • Greater or lesser (whichever is seen as more advantageous), in reference to value, distance, time, etc. 

  • Had better. 

noun
  • An entity, usually animate, deemed superior to another; one who has a claim to precedence; a superior. 

verb
  • To surpass in excellence; to exceed; to excel. 

  • To give advantage to; to support; to advance the interest of. 

  • Had better. 

  • To improve. 

  • To become better; to improve. 

adj
  • Greater in amount or quantity 

less

conj
  • unless 

adv
  • To a smaller extent or degree. 

  • Used for constructing syntactic diminutive comparatives of adjectives and adverbs. 

det
  • Fewer; a smaller number of. 

  • A smaller amount of; not as much. 

prep
  • Minus; not including 

noun
  • A smaller amount or quantity. 

How often have the words better and less occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )