Minus

/ˈmaɪ.nəs/ · preposition

Meaning

(mathematics) Made less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity)..

Definitions by Sense

1. (mathematics) Made less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity).
2. (informal) Without; deprived of.
3. (mathematics) The minus sign (−).
4. (mathematics) A negative quantity.
5. A downside or disadvantage.
6. Being a negative quantity; pertaining to a deficit or reduction.
7. That is below zero by (a specified amount) on a scale.
8. (colloquial, obsolete) Worse off than before; out of pocket.

Example Sentences

Seven minus two is five.

I walked out minus my coat.

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.

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.

As with LCR tout court the question is less to do with the plusses and minusses of the individual ideologies in themselves than in their relationship with their opposite numbers, in this case of Reason with Emotion.

When Morrison mulls the pluses and minuses associated with rebuking Kelly for undermining the government’s public health messaging, the prime minister faces a genuine substantive dilemma, and that goes to the risks of amplification.

a minus number

minus seven degrees

Synonyms for minus

Antonyms for minus

Related Words

Word Forms

• minuses
• minusses
• minusing
• minussing
• minused
• minussed

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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