Subtract Meaning
/səbˈtɹækt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
verbTo remove or reduce; especially to reduce a quantity or number.
Sentence Examples
Subtract three from eight and you get five.
Can you subtract six from ten?
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
To find the difference, you must ____ the smaller number from the larger one.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Don't forget to ____ the discount from the total price before you pay for the new clothes at the store.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Latin subtractus, perfect passive participle of subtrahō (“to draw from beneath; withdraw, remove”); from sub (“under”) + trahō (“to draw, pull, drag”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I could add and subtract and multiply and divide, but I entered the wilderness when words became equations. […] The axioms of arithmetic imply that when you expand (a + b)², for example, you get a² + 2ab + b² in the following way: (a + b)² is equal to (a + b)(a + b). Each term in one parentheses multiplies the terms in the other: a × a = a² ; a × b = ab; b × a = ab; b × b = b². Combining the terms, a² + ab + ab + b² = a² + 2ab + b². In a similar way, a² – b², a squared number subtracted from another squared number, called a difference of squares, becomes (a – b)(a + b), which becomes a² + ab – ab – b², which is a² – b²."
— 2022 August 7, Alec Wilkinson, “Could learning algebra in my 60s make me smarter?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2023:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
To find the difference, you must ____ the smaller number from the larger one.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Don't forget to ____ the discount from the total price before you pay for the new clothes at the store.