partial sum

American  

noun

Mathematics.

1. one of a series of sums of elements of a given sequence, the first sum being the first element, the second sum being the first element added to the second element, the third sum being equal to the sum of the first three elements, and so on.

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Etymology

Origin of partial sum

First recorded in 1925–30

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

partial sum

He calculates that roughly 100 million taxpayers could get the entire $1,700, while another 21 million could receive a partial sum.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

Only three of the eight workers actually got their money: one full-time staff employee got paid through HR channels, while another gig worker received a partial sum after weeks of haggling.

From The Verge ● May 26, 2020

A quarter get a partial sum and 10 percent get nothing.

From New York Times ● Dec. 16, 2019

Use the remainder estimate to determine a bound on the error R10 if we approximate the sum of the series by the partial sum S10.

From Textbooks ● Mar. 30, 2016

Just as Achilles’ sub-races are each finite, each partial sum in a limit is finite.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

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