Word.ws English Dictionary

sum and substance

sum and substance noun: the essential meaning of written or spoken words; gist, crux.

Noun

sum and substance (uncountable)

  1. The essential meaning of written or spoken words; gist, crux.

Questions about sum and substance

What does sum and substance mean?
Sum and substance means the essential meaning of written or spoken words; gist, crux.
What part of speech is sum and substance?
Sum and substance is a noun.

Words near sum and substance in the dictionary

  1. sulvanites
  2. Sulzbach-Rosenberg
  3. sulṭān
  4. sulṭāns
  5. sum
  6. sum and substance
  7. sum assured
  8. sum of best
  9. sum of its parts
  10. sum of parts
  11. sum total

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sum and substance (page history and authors). 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.

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