rather than

rather than

Instead of; as opposed to; as an alternative to. Sometimes the preferred action is written between "rather" and "than." Rather than spending so much of our budget on advertising, I think we should invest a bit more in QA testing. When I go to the movies, I usually prefer candy rather than popcorn, but I'm in the mood for something salty tonight. He'd rather struggle and fail on his own than ask for help.
See also: rather
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

rather than

instead of somebody/something: I think I’ll have a cold drink rather than coffee. Why didn’t you ask for help, rather than trying to do it on your own?
See also: rather
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • walk the line
  • would rather
  • would rather...
  • had rather
  • had rather (do something)
  • had rather do
  • well padded
  • sooner rather than later
  • activist
  • activist judge
References in periodicals archive
Turn the person from a villain into a human by asking yourself, "Why would a reasonable, rational, and decent person do what this person's doing?" When you see your colleague as a person with a flaw rather than a villain with no soul, you'll approach him or her far more effectively.
One of the assumptions that doom many strategic plans to serve as shelf ornaments rather than mechanisms of change is this: Once the right ideas and solutions are discovered and committed to paper, one's work is done.
By the end of the exercise some of the participants said they wanted to take a course presented that way rather than totally by experts.
First, in light of the overwhelming number of people yet to hear the gospel, those involved in the missionary enterprise see the need to find points where they might unite forces to coordinate rather than duplicate efforts.
Of course, the responsibility lies with me rather than with these anthology introductions to teach students.
Notes An: "Postmodern archival thinking considers archiving to be a key feature of society's communication processes in shaping the reality rather than just documenting it.
I think many people define us GLBT people by our sexuality rather than just understanding that it's only one picture in the collage of who we are.
Third, 85% of the study participants wore masks at home, indicating that they were likely to have been symptomatic and subject to isolation rather than quarantine.
Ugo Rondinone's tediously affectless video of scruffy bohemians walking urban streets, the film trailer promoting Pawel Althamer's live performance of everyday life in Pittsburgh, and Nick Relph and Oliver Payne's lovely, much-shown video Driftwood, 1999, all treat their quotidian (rather than newsworthy) subjects with a nondocumentary subjectivity.
"We wanted a building that would serve the purpose of worshippers rather than the other way around," says Mr.
Where the shareholder is a 100% owner, logically any advances should be capital contributions rather than debt.
Rather than suppressing symptoms, as with common 'traditional' drugs, homeopathic formulas work naturally, without fear of overdosing or contraindications.
They gathered around the recitations as the pledge of God's relationship of guidance to them rather than as a clearly defined and already closed textual corpus" (p.
(1) Having had multiple partners in the previous three months rather than one or none is positively associated with a cluster of negative behaviors including fighting, smoking and binge drinking.
The first of these provisions is the allowance of the use of a single sample taken from up to three years combined rather than the requirement of three separate annual samples; the provision results in a great reduction in sample size over the combined years.