minus - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English mynus, from Latin minus, neuter form of minor, comparative form of parvus (“small, little”), from the Proto-Indo-European root *mey- (“few, small”).

enPR: mīn-əs, Rhymes: -aɪnəs

minus

  1. (mathematics) Made less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity). [from 15th c.]
    Antonym: plus
    Seven minus two is five.
  2. (informal) Without; deprived of. [from 19th c.]
    Synonyms: lacking, without
    I walked out minus my coat.

mathematics: less

minus (plural minuses or minusses)[1]

  1. (mathematics) The minus sign (−). [from 16th c.]
    • 1835 January, the Sub-Editor [_i.e._, Edward Howard], “The Life of a Sub-Editor”, in The Metropolitan Magazine, volume XII, number XLV, London: Saunders and Otley, […], page 427:
      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. (mathematics) A negative quantity. [from 18th c.]
  3. A downside or disadvantage. [from 20th c.]
    • 1989, A[udrey] L[ilian] Barker, The Woman Who Talked to Herself, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 111:
      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.
    • 2015, Peter Wyeth, “[Commentaries] Reason”, in The Matter of Vision: Affective Neurobiology & Cinema, New Barnet, Herts.: John Libbey Publishing Ltd; Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 113:
      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.
    • 2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, “Scott Morrison must heed the lesson of Donald Trump and slap down Craig Kelly”, in The Guardian‎[1], archived from the original on 27 April 2021:
      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.

mathematics: negative quantity

minus (not comparable)

  1. Being a negative quantity; pertaining to a deficit or reduction. [from 18th c.]
    a minus number
  2. That is below zero by (a specified amount) on a scale. [from 19th c.]
    minus seven degrees
  3. (colloquial, obsolete) Worse off than before; out of pocket. [19th c.]
    • 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 301:
      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. (postpositive) Ranking just below (a designated rating). [from 19th c.]
    He got a grade of B minus for his essay.

minus (third-person singular simple present minuses or minusses, present participle minusing or minussing, simple past and past participle minused or minussed)

  1. (transitive, colloquial) To subtract. [from 20th c.]
    • 1981 March, Kevin F[rancis] Collis, Cognitive Development, Mathematics Learning, Information Processing and a Refocusing, Madison, Wis.: Wisconsin Research and Development Center for Individualized Schooling, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, page 9:
      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.
    • 1990, William T. Scott, “Systems and structures”, in The Possibility of Communication (Approaches to Semiotics; 87), Berlin; New York, N.Y.: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 38:
      (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.)
    • 2011, Laura Christine Bofferding, Expanding the Numerical Central Conceptual Structure:
      Four plus one is 5 and you go down because it's minusing, […]
    • 2012, Jennifer S. Thom, “Opening Mathematical Spaces of Their Own”, in Re-Rooting the Learning Space: Minding Where Children’s Mathematics Grow (New Directions in Mathematics and Science Education; 21), Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, →ISBN, page 299:
      “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.”
  1. ^ “minus”, in Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary, London: Collins, 1987, published 1992, →ISBN, page 921, column 1: “The plural can be either minusses or minuses.”

From Latin minus (“less”).

minus

  1. minus

Derived from Latin minus, from minor.

minus

  1. minus

minus m inan or n

  1. minus
    Antonym: plus

when masculine:

Indeclinable when neuter.

Borrowed from Latin minus.

minus

  1. (arithmetic) minus
    Synonym: min
    Antonym: plus
  2. minus (without)
    Antonym: plus

minus n (plural minussen, diminutive minusje n)

  1. minus sign
    Synonyms: min, minusteken
  2. minus (disadvantage)
    Synonyms: min, minpunt, contra
    Antonyms: plus, pluspunt, pro

minus

  1. minus
    Antonym: plus
    Tri minus du estas unu. ― Three minus two is one.
    • 1961, Esperantologio, page 156:
      Ni povas principe eliri aŭ de la nominativa formo (finaĵo nul aŭ -s) aŭ de la genitiva formo (minus la finaĵo -os); […]
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2008, Christian Declerck, Spitaj – kiel hidrargo, Antwerp: Flandra Esperanto-Ligo, →ISBN, page 85:

minus

  1. minus
    • 1913, La Revuo, page 395:
      Ho mia Dio! la muro estas vertikala, eĉ negative kruta. La angulo kun la vertikalo estas minus kvin gradoj, ĉar mi ankoraŭ povas matematike pensi.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2015, Esteban Sánchez, Gramática Práctica del Esperanto, →ISBN, page 132:
      dek ok minus dudek estas minus du
      eighteen minus twenty is minus two
    • 2019, Sten Johansson, Ne eblas aplaŭdi unumane, New York, N.Y.: Mondial, →ISBN, page 41:
      La taga temperaturo kutime restadis inter minus dek kaj dek kvin gradoj, kion oni ĉi tie konsideris milda.
      The daytime temperature usually stayed between minus ten and fifteen degrees, which was considered mild here.

Latin minus, ellipsis of minus habēns (literally “that has less, having less”). Compare Italian minus habens. Doublet of moins.

minus m (invariable)

  1. (derogatory) idiot, imbecile

Learned borrowing from Latin minus (“less”).

minus

  1. (mathematics) minus, less
    Synonym: weniger
    Antonyms: plus, und, (rare) mehr
    Fünf minus zehn ist minus fünf.
    Five minus ten is minus five.
  2. (mathematics) minus (UK), negative (US)
    Antonym: plus
    Fünf minus zehn ist minus fünf.
    Five minus ten is minus five.
  3. (education) minus (US) (slightly less good than a given grade)
    Antonym: plus
    Ich hab ’ne Zwei minus in der Mathearbeit.
    I got a B minus on my math test.

minus (not comparable)

  1. less (used to form comparatives)

le minus

  1. the least (used to form superlatives)

From Proto-Italic *minos, neuter of *minōs. Related to minor.

minus

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of minor

minus (comparative)

  1. comparative degree of parum (“very little, too few, not enough”) [3]
  2. comparative degree of paulum (“very little”)
    sīn minus/aliter/secus ― otherwise, if not
This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

mi̇̀nus[1]

  1. minus

  2. ^ “minus”, in Lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of the Lithuanian language], lkz.lt, 1941–2026

From Latin minus.

minus

  1. minus

From Latin minus.

minus

  1. minus

Learned borrowing from Latin minus (“less”).

minus m inan

  1. minus, minus sign
    Antonym: plus

Borrowed from Latin minus.

minus

  1. minus

minus n (plural minusuri)

  1. minus

mínus m inan (Cyrillic spelling ми́нус)

  1. minus sign
  2. minus, defect, deficiency

minus n

  1. minus sign, minus

minus

  1. (mathematics) minus
    Tre minus två är ett.
    Three minus two is one.

minus

  1. inessive of minä