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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

minus.

Made less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity).

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

prep/ˈmaɪ.nəs/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɑe.nəs/Australia/ˈmaɪ.nəs/New-Zealand[ˈmɑe̯.nəs]New-Zealand
  1. Made less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity).

    Seven minus two is five.
  2. Without; deprived of.

    informal
    I walked out minus my coat.
Where this word comes from

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”).

noun/ˈmaɪ.nəs/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɑe.nəs/Australia/ˈmaɪ.nəs/New-Zealand[ˈmɑe̯.nəs]New-Zealand
  1. The minus sign (−).

  2. A negative quantity.

  3. A downside or disadvantage.

Where this word comes from

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”).

adj/ˈmaɪ.nəs/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɑe.nəs/Australia/ˈmaɪ.nəs/New-Zealand[ˈmɑe̯.nəs]New-Zealand
  1. Being a negative quantity; pertaining to a deficit or reduction.

    not-comparable
    a minus number
  2. That is below zero by (a specified amount) on a scale.

    not-comparable
    minus seven degrees
  3. Worse off than before; out of pocket.

    colloquial · not-comparable · obsolete
  4. Ranking just below (a designated rating).

    not-comparable · postpositional
    He got a grade of B minus for his essay.
Where this word comes from

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”).

verb/ˈmaɪ.nəs/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɑe.nəs/Australia/ˈmaɪ.nəs/New-Zealand[ˈmɑe̯.nəs]New-Zealand
  1. To subtract.

    colloquial · transitive
Where this word comes from

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”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.