minus — English Dictionary

Preposition

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

   Synonyms

   less

   Antonyms

   plus

   Examples

   Seven minus two is five.

2. Without; deprived of.

   Usage

   • Informal

   Synonyms

   lackingwithout

   Examples

   I walked out minus my coat.

Noun

1. The minus sign (−).

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   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. A negative quantity.

3. A downside or disadvantage.

   Examples

   More examples (3)

   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.

Adjective

1. Being a negative quantity; pertaining to a deficit or reduction.

   Usage

   • not-comparable

   Examples

   a minus number

2. That is below zero by (a specified amount) on a scale.

   Usage

   • not-comparable

   Examples

   minus seven degrees

   Arriving during late spring in the satellite's southern hemisphere, Voyager found the coldest body in the solar system, minus 235°C (-391°F).

3. Worse off than before; out of pocket.

   Usage

   • Colloquial
   • not-comparable
   • Obsolete

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   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).

   Usage

   • not-comparable
   • postpositional

   Examples

   He got a grade of B minus for his essay.

Verb

1. To subtract.

   Usage

   • Colloquial
   • Transitive

   Related words

   subtractsubtraction

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   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.

   (The terms positive and negative feedback are now part of everyday language where the meanings are reversed: in cybernetic systems, positive feedback is undesirable for it indicates that the discrepancy is “plussing,” rather than “minussing” to zero.)

   Four plus one is 5 and you go down because it's minusing, […]

   More examples (1)

   “But you also minussed! … Sam… Sam also minussed seventy-two but he also… one hundred forty-four minus seventy-two equals seventy-two. He also minussed the seventy-two.”

Adjective

1. on the negative side or lower end of a scale

   Antonyms

   plus

   Examples

   minus 5 degrees

   a grade of B minus

2. involving disadvantage or harm

   Synonyms

   negative

   Examples

   minus (or negative) factors

Noun

1. an arithmetic operation in which the difference between two numbers is calculated

   Synonyms

   subtraction

   Broader terms

   arithmetic operation

   Examples

   the subtraction of three from four leaves one

   four minus three equals one