Capital at risk. The value of your investments can go up and down, and you may get back less than you invest. The US dollar is the world’s most trad ...

Understanding the Context

Then I questioned whether either "What is the least number of people?" or "What is the fewest number of people?" is a superior alternative. My guess is that the "fewest number" option is the best, grammatically speaking. Is it? In what ways are the words least, lowest, and fewest used differently?

Key Insights

Thank you! What is the difference between least and lowest? Websites announce as "Lowest prices", but not "least". Least is the superlative degree. low > lower > least ?

Final Thoughts

The term lowest (or least) common denominator (LCD) of a set of whole numbers (i.e., non-zero integers) is the smallest whole number that each member of the set divides evenly. Mathematically, this means that the LCD includes all the factors of each member of the set, but in the vernacular, it means the smallest thing that a group of people share, an idea akin to the smallest prime factor ... What does “the lowest common denominator” mean in the context other ... The lowest common denominator sounds like it's smaller than the greatest common divisor, when in fact it's the opposite. It's not a very good expression to use outside mathematics, as it sounds better when it's used incorrectly. mathematics - Why do we say "lowest common denominator" when we mean ...

I'm not a native speaker and was wondering what exactly does "lowest common denominator" mean? I was always under the impression that it referred to something base that is shared by the largest amount of people, like sexual urges, envy, greed etc.