Plus

How to spell plus

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce plus

What does plus mean?

1. prepositionWith the addition of; combined with a further amount or item.
2. nounA positive factor, benefit, or advantage in a situation.
3. conjunctionAnd furthermore; used informally to introduce an additional point.

Plus in a sentence

• preposition

  The total bill came to forty pounds plus a service charge.

• noun

  The flat is small, but its central location is a real plus.

• conjunction

  The hotel was cheap, plus it had a great view of the harbour.

• preposition

  The rent is eight hundred a month plus utilities.

• noun

  Having a second language on your résumé is always a plus.

• conjunction

  She finished the report early, plus she fixed the budget too.

Where does plus come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin plus, which simply meant 'more' and served as the comparative form of multus, meaning 'much' or 'many'. The same Latin root lies behind several English relatives, including 'plural' and 'surplus', the latter literally describing what is 'over and more'. English adopted plus in the 1500s as a mathematical term, where it marked the operation of adding and gave its name to the plus sign. From that arithmetical core it broadened over the following centuries into everyday use, first as a preposition meaning 'with the addition of' and later as a casual noun for an advantage or a benefit. Because it was taken into English unchanged and has only one syllable, plus carries almost no spelling trap; the single point worth noting is that it ends in a single 's', not the doubled 'ss' that some short words like 'fuss' or 'bus' might suggest by analogy.

How the word is built

• plus (from Latin plus: more), an unanalysable single root borrowed whole