minus sign
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of minus sign
First recorded in 1660–70
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Iran probably won’t put a minus sign in front of U.S. growth figures this year, but that doesn’t mean American investors are free and clear.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
“The fact that a minus sign determines the fact that you and I are having this conversation is the weirdest thing in nature,” Meade says.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 28, 2023
If you know you definitely do not want a word included, add it after a minus sign — type in -rum and you’ll get pages without the word rum on them.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 15, 2023
Next, use quotation marks, the minus sign and the site operator, liberally.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 15, 2023
It was not a word to cover up the deformity of uselessness or the glaring defect of a moral minus sign.
From Sermons on Biblical Characters by Chappell, Clovis G.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
