noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The process of subtracting a number from another. uncountable
2. 2
   the act of subtracting (removing a part from the whole) wordnet
3. 3
   A calculation involving subtracting. countable

   "The teacher has set us ten subtractions to do by tomorrow."

4. 4
   an arithmetic operation in which the difference between two numbers is calculated wordnet
5. 5
   The removal of something. countable, uncountable

   "The subtraction of the wealth from the economy will result in recession."

Synonyms

All synonyms

deductionabatementablationabrasionabridgmentabsence

Antonyms

All antonyms

addaddition

Example

More examples

"I like addition but not subtraction."

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin subtractio, subtractionis. Can be decomposed to subtract + -ion.

Related phrases

math actmath activitymath functionmath operationmath termminus signnegative additiontake awaytaking away

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