summation

American  

[suh-may-shuhn] / səˈmeɪ ʃən /

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.

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summation British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

• summational
  adjective
• summative
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of summation

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

Explanation

A summation is a final review or conclusion, often given in a court of law. As the incompetent lawyer approached the bench for the final time, he told the judge and jury, "In summation, my client is guilty of all charges." At the end of every court case, both the defense and prosecution give a summation — a quick rundown of all the facts from the case to help the jury decide on a verdict. When used outside of the courtroom, summation simply means recounting a group of items or events. At the end of a father-son camping trip, the son gives his mother a summation of the trip. You'll note that summation begins with the prefix sum-, meaning "to add up." In fact, another definition for summation is the process of adding things together, or the final sum.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

summation

As Stuart scholar Ellen Miles has written, the Lansdowne Portrait, as it is known, is “Stuart’s grandest American accomplishment,” a beautiful picture that “was quickly recognized as the best pictorial summation of Washington’s public role.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

Judging from the near-universal backlash to Timothée Chalamet’s recent bad-mouthing of ballet, Eden’s summation of the central tenet of their show may be true.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2026

Salon’s executive editor Andrew O’Hehir quotes producer Tomoyuki Tanaka’s summation in his ode to the original movie: “Mankind had created the Bomb,” Tanaka said, “and now nature was going to take revenge on mankind.”

From Salon ● Mar. 20, 2026

With all that said, a bonfire composed of burning laptops is a good summation of 2026’s current flavor of anxiety.

From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2026

I never liked writing concluding paragraphs to papers—where you just repeat what you’ve already said with phrases like In summation, and To conclude.

From "Looking for Alaska" by John Green