Minus Meaning
/ˈmaɪ.nəs/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
prepMade less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity).
prepWithout; deprived of.
Sentence Examples
The thermometer registered minus ten last night.
How many is nine minus six?
The temperature went down to minus ten degrees centigrade last night.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The temperature outside dropped to ____ ten degrees below zero last night.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The temperature outside has dropped to ____ five degrees Celsius, making it feel very cold indeed even with a heavy winter coat.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 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:
"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."
— 1989, A[udrey] L[ilian] Barker, The Woman Who Talked to Herself, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 111:
"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."
— 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:
"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."
— 2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, “Scott Morrison must heed the lesson of Donald Trump and slap down Craig Kelly”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2021:
"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."
— 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:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The temperature outside dropped to ____ ten degrees below zero last night.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The temperature outside has dropped to ____ five degrees Celsius, making it feel very cold indeed even with a heavy winter coat.