Minus
adj, name, noun, prep, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The minus sign (−).
"On the third day a Master Barnard brings me up a slate full of plusses, minusses, x, y, z’s, and other letters of the alphabet, in a most amiable algebraical confusion."
- 2 an arithmetic operation in which the difference between two numbers is calculated wordnet
- 3 A negative quantity.
- 4 A downside or disadvantage.
"He valued Roderick’s friendship with the highest value he put on anything nowadays. Over the years they had assessed each other’s plusses and minusses and settled for the difference."
- 1 To subtract. colloquial, transitive
"For example, in solving the following equation, x + 4 = 9, the child using the negating mechanism will reason, "minussing 4" undoes "plussing 4" therefore, if x + 4 = 9 then x = 5 and will not see any point in using any intermediate steps."
- 1 Being a negative quantity; pertaining to a deficit or reduction. not-comparable
"a minus number"
- 2 That is below zero by (a specified amount) on a scale. not-comparable
"minus seven degrees"
- 3 Worse off than before; out of pocket. colloquial, not-comparable, obsolete
"The races being finished, we left Epsom for London, Mordaunt's natural vile temper not being at all improved by being three hundred pounds minus by the week's speculation […] ."
- 4 Ranking just below (a designated rating). not-comparable, postpositional
"He got a grade of B minus for his essay."
- 1 involving disadvantage or harm wordnet
- 2 on the negative side or lower end of a scale wordnet
- 1 Made less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity).
"Seven minus two is five."
- 2 Without; deprived of. informal
"I walked out minus my coat."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"The thermometer registered minus ten last night."
Etymology
From Middle English mynus, from Latin minus, neuter form of minor, comparative form of parvus (“small, little”), from the Proto-Indo-European root *mey- (“few, small”).
Unexplained.
Related phrases
More for "minus"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.