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# minus

«minus» in Mova's school dictionary: **take away** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

preposition (minus); noun (a minus, minuses); adjective (minus)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Minus means take away. 7 minus 3 is 4. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#m1)

2) The sign for minus is −. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#m2)

3) Minus before a number means below zero: minus 5 degrees. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#m3)

4) A minus is a bad point, a disadvantage: «pluses and minuses». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#m4)

5) After a grade, minus means a bit lower: B minus. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

the word for subtraction; also a negative number, as in minus 5 degrees; in everyday life temperatures and grades; phrases «plus or minus», «minus sign», «pluses and minuses»

### examples

- What is 10 minus 4? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#x1)
- 15 minus 6 equals 9. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#x2)
- The temperature was minus 3 degrees. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#x3)
- Twenty minus eight is twelve. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#x4)
- Write a minus sign between the numbers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#x5)
- I got a B minus on my spelling test. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#x6)
- One minus of the trip is the long drive. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#x7)
- Count down: 3, 2, 1, 0, minus 1. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/#x8)

### note

A direct clue: subtract the number after it from the number before it. Order matters: 10 minus 4 is not 4 minus 10. Trap: «minus 3 degrees» is a temperature below zero, not a subtraction. The answer to a minus sum is the difference.

### In the corpora

- [The coldest temperature ever measured at a weather station was about minus 89 degrees Celsius, at Vostok Station in Antarctica in 1983.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/7-antarctica/12/)
- [moins means minus: cinq heures moins le quart is quarter to five, cinq heures moins dix is ten to five.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/12-telling-the-time/9/)
- [Your freezer at home is about minus 18 degrees; Vostok station once measured about minus 89.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/15-the-arctic-and-antarctica/3/)
- [The change is what you paid minus what the things cost.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/lessons/93-change/1/)
- [To find how long something lasts on the same day, count the hours from the start to the end: end minus start.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/lessons/95-elapsed-hours/0/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «minus» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/minus/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.