Sometimes I see “lest” appear in client’s writing. Often it’s followed by a note asking, “Is this even a word?” It is indeed a word and acceptable to use. “Lest” means “so as not to” as in “The burglar stepped quietly lest he be heard.”
Whenever using “lest”, don’t put “not” after it, as in as in “The burglar stepped quietly lest not he be heard”, or you’ll end up with a sort of double negative – your sentence then would be the equivalent of saying, “The burglar stepped quietly so as not to be heard.”
As “lest” is rarely used in modern English, many readers will find it an odd word, so I recommend seeing if you can rewrite the sentence to avoid its use.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 350 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.
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