minus
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
A negative quantity.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mynuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmaɪnəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
mathematics
A negative quantity.
A downside or disadvantage.
mathematics
The minus sign (−).
adjective
Being a negative quantity; pertaining to a deficit or reduction.
That is below zero by (a specified amount) on a scale.
verb
transitivecolloquial
To subtract.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A sign indicating the operation of subtraction.
A bacterium causing ratbite fever.
A lepton of very great mass.
A plant that is ubiquitous in all but very acid soil.
Annual with deep yellow flowers smaller than the common garden nasturtium.
Common European glabrous annual centaury with flowers in dense cymes.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.