Subtract

//səbˈtɹækt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To remove or reduce; especially to reduce a quantity or number. transitive

    "If you subtract the $100 for gas from the total cost, it was a fairly inexpensive trip."

  2. 2
    take off or away wordnet
  3. 3
    make a subtraction wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
abateabradeabruptabstractaddalgebraize

Example

More examples

"Subtract three from eight and you get five."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin subtractus, perfect passive participle of subtrahō (“I draw from beneath; withdraw, remove”); from sub (“under”) + trahō (“I draw, pull, drag”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.