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

    • Audio (California):

      (file)

  • (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑɪnəs/
• 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.

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.

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

• (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

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.

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

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.”

• subtract
• subtraction

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

• in sum, munis, simun

From Latin minus (“less”).

minus

1. minus

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

Derived from Latin minus, from minor.

• IPA^(key): [ˈmiːnus]

minus

1. minus

minus m inan or n

1. minus

   Antonym: plus

when masculine:

Indeclinable when neuter.

• “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

• IPA^(key): /ˈminus/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -inus
• Hyphenation: mi‧nus

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)

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.

• IPA^(key): /mi.nys/

• Audio:

  (file)

minus m (plural minus)

1. (derogatory) idiot, imbecile
   • 1973, Jean Eustache, La Maman et la Putain, spoken by Alexandre:

     Les femmes qui sont avec des types bien les trompent toujours avec des minus. C’est sans doute une façon pour elles de s’affirmer, peut-être.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “minus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• IPA^(key): [ˈmiːnʊs]

• Audio:

  (file)

minus

1. (mathematics) minus, less

   Synonym: weniger

   Antonym: plus

   vier minus drei ist eins. ― 4–3=1

• Minus

minus (not comparable)

1. less (used to form comparatives)

le minus

1. the least (used to form superlatives)

• plus

• menus (Merovingian)

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

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

minus

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of minor

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

• “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)

mi̇̀nus^[1]

1. minus

From Latin minus.

minus

1. minus

• minustegn

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

From Latin minus.

minus

1. minus

• minusteikn

• “minus” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Learned borrowing from Latin minus (“less”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmi.nus/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -inus
• Syllabification: mi‧nus

minus m inan

1. minus, minus sign

   Antonym: plus

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

Borrowed from Latin minus.

minus

1. minus

minus n (plural minusuri)

1. minus

mínus m (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.

• minusa

minus

1. inessive of minä