Minus

How to spell minus

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce minus

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does minus mean?

1. prepositionReduced by; with the stated amount subtracted.
2. prepositionLacking or without something that was expected to be present.
3. adjectiveLess than zero; negative in value or temperature.
4. nounA negative point, drawback, or the minus sign itself.

Minus in a sentence

• preposition

  Ten minus four leaves six.

• preposition

  The laptop arrived minus its charger.

• adjective

  The overnight temperature dropped to minus five degrees.

• noun

  The long commute is a real minus for the new job.

• preposition

  The final price is the list value minus the discount.

• preposition

  He came back from the trip minus his wallet.

Where does minus come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is borrowed directly and unchanged from Latin, where minus meant 'less' and served as the neuter form of minor, the comparative of parvus, meaning 'little' or 'small'. Mathematicians of the late medieval and Renaissance period reached for this plain Latin word to label a quantity that was reduced or taken away, and by the fifteenth century English writers were using it to mark subtraction and negative amounts. The familiar short dash used as the minus sign grew out of this same arithmetical tradition. The same minor root survives in everyday English words such as 'minor', 'minority' and 'minimum', all of which carry the underlying idea of something smaller or lesser. Because the word entered English as a ready-made technical term rather than evolving through speech, its spelling has stayed simple and stable, and the only real trap is the single 's' ending rather than the doubled 'ss' some writers expect.

How the word is built

• minus (Latin: less, the comparative of parvus 'little')