sum
UK/sʌm/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/sʊm/
sum noun: a quantity obtained by addition or aggregation. Also the eye dialect spelling of some.
Noun (1)
sum (plural sums)
- A quantity obtained by addition or aggregation.
- The sum of 3 and 4 is 7.
- Take yee the ſumme of all the Congregation of the children of Iſrael,[…]1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 1:2, columns 1–2
- An arithmetic computation, especially one posed to a student as an exercise (not necessarily limited to addition).
- We're learning about division, and the sums are tricky.
- […] a large sheet of paper […] covered with long sums […]1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “The Emigrants”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 572
- Synonyms:
- calculation, computation
- A quantity of money.
- a tidy sum
- the sum of forty pounds
- Synonyms:
- amount, quantity of money, sum of money
- A summary; the principal points or thoughts when viewed together; the substance.
- This is the sum of all the evidence in the case.
- This is the sum and substance of his objections.
- Synonyms:
- compendium, summation, abridgment, abstract, bottom line, conspectus, digest, epitome, outline, overview
- A central idea or point; gist.
- The utmost degree; the greatest or most perfect realization (of some concept).
- Thus I have told thee all my State, and brought / My Storie to the ſum of earthly bliſs[…]1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Our wisdom and skill cannot save us from accidents, pains, and from that sum of all fears and distresses—death.1877, Rev. Thomas H. Leale, chapter 2, in A Homiletic Commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes, page 32
- An old English measure of corn equal to the quarter.
- The sum is also used for the quarter, and the strike for the bushel.1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 207
Verb
sum (third-person singular simple present sums, present participle summing, simple past and past participle summed)
- To add together.
- when you say that stability and change are, it's because you're summing them up together as embraced by it, and taking note of the communion each of them has with being.2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 250b
- To give a summary of.
Noun (2)
- The basic unit of money in Kyrgyzstan.
- The basic unit of money in Uzbekistan.
Noun (3)
sum (plural sums)
- A type of administrative district used in China, Mongolia, and Russia. In Mongolia, a sum is smaller than a province. In China, it is only used in Inner Mongolia, where it is equivalent to a township.
Proper noun capitalized: Sum
Sum (plural Sums)
- A surname.
Also used as
sum is also the eye dialect spelling of some.
sum is also the pronunciation spelling of something.
sum meaning in Malayalam, Gujarati, Tagalog and Arabic
sum in Malayalam
- quantity obtained by addition or aggregation
- തുക tuka
- quantity of money
- തുക tuka
sum in Gujarati
- સરવાળો
sum in Tagalog
- quantity obtained by addition or aggregation
- dagup
sum in Arabic
- quantity obtained by addition or aggregation
- مَجْمُوع majmūʕ
- quantity of money
- مَبْلَغ mablaḡ
More languagesFewer languages
- sum in Malay
- hasil tambah, jumlah
- sum in Persian
- مجموع majmu'
- sum in Vietnamese
- tổng số
Examples of sum in a sentence
- "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.a. 2004, Jimmy Wales, quotee, “Wikipedia:Prime objective”, in Wikipedia:
- ‘But enough of doing sums for to-day, and what about that procession?’ ‘I’m on,’ said Egbert.1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 11:
- "I think it was a disgraceful performance from a captain that got his sums wrong today, and I think it should never be permitted to happen again."1981, Lisa Valentin, quoting Richie Benaud, “The day Richie Benaud stood up for principle over patriotism”, in Stuff, published 11 April...
- […]With a great ſumme obteined I this freedome.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 22:28, column 1:
Synonyms of sum
- sum total
- total
- totality
- calculation
- computation
- amount
- quantity of money
- sum of money
- compendium
- summation
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of sum
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sums |
| plural | sumy |
| alternative form | som |
| alternative form | soum |
| alternative Russia | somon |
| alternative Russia | sumon |
| alternative China sometimes | sumu |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sums |
| present participle | summing |
| past participle | summed |
| past | summed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Sums |
Origin of sum
From Middle English summe, from Old French summe, from Latin summa (“highest point; sum”), from summus (“highest”).
Borrowed from Kazakh сом (som), Kyrgyz сом (som), Uyghur سوم (som), and Uzbek soʻm, all of which have the core signification “pure”, used in elliptical reference to historical coins of pure gold.
From Mongolian сум (sum), from Manchu ᠨᡳᡵᡠ (niru, “a large arrow, militia company, district”). Ultimately from Proto-Mongolic *sumun (“arrow”).
Words formed from sum
- Abel sum
- Appell-Lerch sum
- checksum
- digit sum
- direct sum
- formal sum
- in sum
- linear sum
- lump sum
- Murasugi sum
- negative-sum
- partial sum
- positive-sum
- princely sum
- Ramanujan's sum
- rank sum
- residual sum of squares
- Riemann sum
- ring sum normal form
- semisum
- sum and substance
- sum assured
- sumless
- summist
- sum of best
- sum of its parts
- sum of parts
- sumset
- sum-total
- sumtree
- sum-up
- sum up
- vector sum
- wedge sum
- zero-sum
- zero-sum game
- outsum
- oversum
- resum
- summability
- summable
- summate
Phrases with sum
Words that rhyme with sum
Questions about sum
- What does sum mean?
- Sum means a quantity obtained by addition or aggregation.
- What is sum in Malayalam?
- Sum in Malayalam is തുക (tuka). See Sum meaning in Malayalam.
- How do you use sum in a sentence?
- "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.
- What part of speech is sum?
- Sum can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce sum?
- Sum is pronounced /sʌm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of sum?
- The plural of sum is sums.
Words near sum in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sum (page history and authors); Sum (page history and authors); sum (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sum.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.