summation

[ suh-mey-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act or process of summing.
2. the result of this; an aggregate or total.
3. a review or recapitulation of previously stated facts or statements, often with a final conclusion or conclusions drawn from them.
4. Law. the final arguments of opposing attorneys before a case goes to the jury.
5. Physiology. the arousal of impulses by a rapid succession of stimuli, carried either by separate sensory neurons spatial summation or by the same sensory neuron temporal summation.

summation

/ sʌˈmeɪʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of determining a sum; addition
2. the result of such an act or process
3. a summary
4. law the concluding statements made by opposing counsel in a case before a court

Derived Forms

• ˈsummative, adjective
• sumˈmational, adjective

Other Words From

• sum·mation·al adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of summation¹

1750–60; < Medieval Latin summātiōn- (stem of summātiō ), equivalent to summāt ( us ) (past participle of summāre to sum; -ate ¹ ) + -iōn- -ion

Word History and Origins

Origin of summation¹

C18: from Medieval Latin summātiō, from summāre to total, from Latin summa sum ¹

Example Sentences

It turns out that the ability to touch your toes is the summation of a number of different physiological factors, many of which we have no control over.

From Popular-Science

My general summation of what occured is that it’s just one of those things that happen.

From Outside Online

Finally, this year, we got something approaching a summation of all these efforts.

From TechCrunch

When asked about her decades in the trenches of exoneration work, Nethercott offers in summation a moment of absurdity.

From Washington Post

In the end, the teams didn’t actually perform the full summation of shapes, which was beyond them.

From Quanta Magazine

It was the epitome of Kim Kardashian, and a fitting summation of the Year of Butt.

From The Daily Beast

And that is this sleazy rabbit hole in its most perfect summation.

From The Daily Beast

Per Kundera, tweets and blogs translate every link, adding ideology in the guise of summation.

From The Daily Beast

“She is not Amanda the Ripper,” Bongiorno told the jury in her summation.

From The Daily Beast

"3 words... Los Angeles Lifetime," suggested Tim Smith, a New York artists' studio manager, in a summation of the season.

From The Daily Beast

The summation is defined as the increase in entropy between the initial and the final states.

From Project Gutenberg

In any case we may regard the smallest spots as the initial stages of variation, the larger as a cumulative summation of these.

From Project Gutenberg

Please explain discrepancy between these reports and your own summation of ten hours previous.

From Project Gutenberg

Without this counterweight, how false would be our final summation of the evidence upon most of the great state trials!

From Project Gutenberg

Its summation is best expressed by the varied sights and emotions of an afternoon in mid-December.

From Project Gutenberg