sum
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A quantity get by the addition of a group of numbers.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
suhmIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsʌm
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
A quantity obtained by the addition of a group of numbers
A quantity obtained by addition or aggregation.
A quantity of money
often plural
An arithmetic computation, especially one posed to a student as an exercise (not necessarily limited to addition).
A summary; the principal points or thoughts when viewed together; the substance.
A central idea or point; gist.
verb
transitive
To add together.
transitive
To give a summary of.
“The abstract summarizes the main ideas in the paper.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A quantity obtained by the addition of a group of numbers
Used this way, sum is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use sum
- “The sum of all our troubles did not equal the misery they suffered.”noun
- “He borrowed a large sum.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- zeronoun
- integernoun
- polynomialnoun
- vectornoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.