minus

See also: Minus and mínus

English

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: mīn-əs
  • (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪnəs/

    • Audio (California):

      (file)

  • (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑɪnəs/
• Rhymes: -aɪnəs

Preposition

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.

Derived terms

• ice-minus
• minus sign
• T-minus

Translations

mathematics: less

• Arabic: نَاقَص (nāqaṣ)

  Egyptian Arabic: ناقص (naaʔeṣ)

• Armenian: հանած (hy) (hanac)
• Asturian: menos (ast)
• Basque: ken
• Bengali: বিয়োগ (bn) (biẏōg)
• Bulgarian: минус (minus)
• Catalan: menys (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 減 / 减

  Mandarin: 減 / 减 (zh) (jiǎn)

• Czech: minus (cs), mínus (cs)
• Dutch: min (nl)
• Esperanto: minus (eo)
• Estonian: miinus (et)
• Finnish: miinus (fi), pois (fi)
• French: moins (fr)
• Galician: menos (gl)
• German: weniger (de), minus (de)
• Greek: πλην (el) n (plin), μείον (el) n (meíon)
• Hebrew: פחות (he) (pakhót), מינוס (mínus)
• Hindi: कम (hi) (kam), घटाकर (ghaṭākar)
• Hungarian: mínusz (hu)
• Icelandic: mínus
• Indonesian: dikurangi (id)
• Irish: lúide
• Italian: meno (it)
• Japanese: 引く (ja) (hiku)
• Korean: 빼기 (ko) (ppaegi)
• Macedonian: минус (minus)
• Malay: tolak (ms)
• Marathi: कमी (kamī)
• Norwegian: minus
• Persian: منها (fa) (menhâ)
• Polish: minus (pl) m
• Portuguese: menos (pt)
• Russian: ми́нус (ru) (mínus)
• Spanish: menos (es)
• Swedish: minus (sv)
• Tagalog: bawas (tl)
• Tamil: கழித்தல் (kaḻittal)
• Thai: ลบ (th) (lóp)
• Turkish: eksi (tr)
• Urdu: منفی
• Vietnamese: trừ (vi)
• Welsh: namyn
• Yiddish: מינוס (minus)

Noun

minus (plural minuses or minusses)

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.

Synonyms

• (defect or deficiency): defect, deficiency, drawback, flaw, shortcoming

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “minus sign”): plus, plus sign
• (antonym(s) of “negative quantity”): positive
• (antonym(s) of “defect or deficiency”): advantage, bonus, boon, gain, plus

Derived terms

• check minus
• hyphen-minus
• minus-one
• minus-plus sign
• minus pool
• mix-minus
• plus minus
• plus-minus method
• plus-minus sign
• plus or minus

Translations

minus sign — see minus sign

mathematics: negative quantity

• German: Minus (de) n
• Icelandic: neikvæð tala f, tala sem er minni en núll f
• Japanese: 負 (ja) (ふ, fu), マイナス (ja) (mainasu)
• Portuguese: negativo (pt) m
• Russian: отрица́тельная величина́ (otricátelʹnaja veličiná)
• Spanish: negativo (es) m
• Swedish: negativ kvantitet
• Thai: ลบ (th) (lóp)

downside or disadvantage

• Czech: mínus (cs) n
• Finnish: miinus (fi) (colloquial)
• German: Minus (de) n
• Icelandic: mínus m, ókostur m
• Russian: ми́нус (ru) (mínus), недоста́ток (ru) (nedostátok)
• Swedish: brist (sv), minus (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 빼기 (ko) (ppaegi)
• Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 減去 / 减去 (zh), ^{(please verify)} 减去 (zh) (jiǎn qù)

Adjective

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.

Synonyms

• (negative): negative
• (on the negative part of a scale): below zero (after the noun)

Derived terms

• A minus
• F minus
• pi-minus

Translations

negative

• Arabic: سَالِب (sālib)
• Armenian: բացասական (hy) (bacʻasakan)
• Bulgarian: отрицателен (bg) (otricatelen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 负 (zh) (fù)

• Dutch: min (nl), negatief (nl), negatieve (nl)
• Finnish: negatiivinen (fi)
• French: strictement négatif (fr) m, strictement négative (fr) f
• Greek: αρνητικός (el) (arnitikós)
• Hungarian: mínusz (hu), negatív (hu)
• Icelandic: mínus-, sem lýtur að frádrætti, frádráttar-, neikvæður (is), minni en núll
• Italian: negativo (it) m, negativa (it) f
• Japanese: 負 (ja) (fu)
• Norwegian: negativ (no)
• Polish: ujemny (pl)
• Portuguese: negativo (pt) m
• Russian: отрица́тельный (ru) (otricátelʹnyj)
• Swedish: negativ (sv)

on the negative part of a scale

• Armenian: մինուս (hy) (minus)
• Basque: minus
• Dutch: min (nl), onder nul (after the noun)
• Esperanto: minus (eo)
• Finnish: miinus (fi), pakkanen (fi) (of temperatures)
• French: moins (fr)
• Greek: μείον (el) (meíon), πλην (el) (plin)
• Hungarian: mínusz (hu)
• Icelandic: mínus-, neikvæður (is), minni en núll
• Japanese: マイナス (ja) (mainasu)
• Russian: ми́нус (ru) (mínus)
• Swedish: minus (sv)

ranking just below a designated rating

• Finnish: miinus (fi), miikka (fi) (slang)
• French: moins (fr)
• Hungarian: alá (hu)
• Icelandic: mínus
• Russian: с ми́нусом (s mínusom)
• Swedish: minus (sv)

Verb

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.”

See also

• subtract
• subtraction

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “minus”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “minus”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• in sum, munis, simun

Crimean Tatar

Etymology

From Latin minus (“less”).

Noun

minus

1. minus

Declension

Declension of minus

nominative	minus
genitive	minusnıñ
dative	minusqa
accusative	minusnı
locative	minusta
ablative	minustan

References

• Mirjejev, V. A., Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary]‎^[1], Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN

Czech

Etymology

Derived from Latin minus, from minor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmiːnus]

Adverb

minus

1. minus

Noun

minus m inan or n

1. minus

   Antonym: plus

Declension

when masculine:

Declension of minus (hard masculine inanimate)

	singular	plural
nominative	minus	minusy
genitive	minusu	minusů
dative	minusu	minusům
accusative	minus	minusy
vocative	minuse	minusy
locative	minusu	minusech
instrumental	minusem	minusy

Indeclinable when neuter.

Related terms

• administrace
• administrativa
• administrátor
• administrovat
• deminuce
• deminutivní
• deminutivum
• minimalismus
• minimalista
• minimalistický
• minimalizace
• minimalizovat
• minimální
• minimum
• ministerstvo
• ministr
• ministrant
• minorita
• minuskule
• minuta

Further reading

• “minus”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “minus”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “minus”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Esperanto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈminus/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -inus
• Hyphenation: mi‧nus

Preposition

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:

     ‘La universala estas la loka minus la muroj,’ diris Marteno.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Adjective

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.

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmiːnʊs]

• Audio:

  (file)

Adverb

minus

1. (mathematics) minus, less

   Synonym: weniger

   Antonym: plus

   vier minus drei ist eins. ― 4–3=1

See also

• Minus

Interlingua

Adverb

minus (not comparable)

1. less (used to form comparatives)

le minus

1. the least (used to form superlatives)

Antonyms

• plus

Latin

Alternative forms

• menus (Merovingian)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.nus/, [ˈmɪnʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.nus/, [ˈmiːnus]

Adjective

minus

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of minor

Adverb

minus

1. comparative degree of parum (“very little, too few, not enough”) [2]
2. comparative degree of paulum (“very little”)

   sīn minus/aliter/secus ― otherwise, if not

Descendants

• Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Dalmatian: maine, men
  • Italian: meno
• Gallo-Italic:
  • Piedmontese: meyn
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: menys
  • Occitan: mens
  • Old French: moins, meins
    • Middle French: moins
      • French: moins
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: menos
    • Galician: menos
    • Portuguese: menos
  • Old Leonese: menos
    • Asturian: menos
  • Old Spanish: menos
    • Ladino: menos
    • Spanish: menos
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: minus (Nuorese)
• Borrowings:
  • → Czech: minus
  • → English: minus
  • → Esperanto: minus
  • → German: Minus, minus
  • → Interlingua: minus
  • → Icelandic: mínus
  • → Norwegian Bokmål: minus
  • → Norwegian Nynorsk: minus
  • → Polish: minus
  • → Romanian: minus
  • → Serbo-Croatian: minus
  • → Swedish: minus

References

• “minus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• sin in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2025), Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
• “minus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "minus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Lithuanian

Preposition

mi̇̀nus

1. minus

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin minus.

Adverb

minus

1. minus

Derived terms

• minustegn

References

• “minus” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “minus_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin minus.

Adverb

minus

1. minus

Derived terms

• minusteikn

References

• “minus” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin minus (“less”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmi.nus/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -inus
• Syllabification: mi‧nus

Noun

minus m inan

1. minus, minus sign

   Antonym: plus

Declension

Declension of minus

	singular	plural
nominative	minus	minusy
genitive	minusa	minusów
dative	minusowi	minusom
accusative	minus	minusy
instrumental	minusem	minusami
locative	minusie	minusach
vocative	minusie	minusy

Further reading

• minus in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• minus in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin minus.

Adverb

minus

1. minus

Noun

minus n (plural minusuri)

1. minus

Declension

Declension of minus

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	minus	minusul		minusuri	minusurile
genitive-dative	minus	minusului		minusuri	minusurilor
vocative	minusule			minusurilor

Serbo-Croatian

Noun

mínus m (Cyrillic spelling ми́нус)

1. minus sign
2. minus, defect, deficiency

Declension

Declension of minus

	singular	plural
nominative	minus	minusi
genitive	minusa	minusa
dative	minusu	minusima
accusative	minus	minuse
vocative	minuse	minusi
locative	minusu	minusima
instrumental	minusom	minusima

Swedish

Noun

minus n

1. minus sign, minus

Preposition

minus

1. (mathematics) minus

   Tre minus två är ett.

   Three minus two is one.

Derived terms

• minusa

Veps

Pronoun

minus

1. inessive of minä