Word.ws English Dictionary

summa

summa noun: a comprehensive summary of, or treatise on a subject, especially theology or philosophy.

Noun

summa (plural summas or summae)

  1. A comprehensive summary of, or treatise on a subject, especially theology or philosophy.
  2. (figuratively) A culmination or archetypal example.
    • In size, scope, and graphic ambition [the map] is a summa of the mapping art of the day, represented in paint by Vermeer.1987, Svetlana Alpers, “The Mapping Impulse in Dutch Art”, in David Woodward, editor, Art and Cartography: Six Historical Essays, page 57
    • The painting is a “summa” of the various trends that intertwined and developed during those crucial years of the early sixteenth century in Florence.1993, Franca Falletti, The David and the Accademia Gallery, page 6

Proper noun capitalized: Summa

Summa (plural Summas)

  1. A surname from Italian.

Forms of summa

Noun
pluralsummas
pluralsummae
Proper noun
pluralSummas

Origin of summa

From Latin summa.

Borrowed from Italian Summa.

Phrases with summa

Questions about summa

What does summa mean?
Summa means a comprehensive summary of, or treatise on a subject, especially theology or philosophy.
What part of speech is summa?
Summa can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of summa?
The plural of summa is summas.

Words near summa in the dictionary

  1. sumless
  2. Sumlin
  3. Sumlins
  4. summ
  5. summ'd
  6. summa
  7. summa bona
  8. summa cum laude
  9. summa genera
  10. summabilities
  11. summability

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: summa (page history and authors); Summa (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “summa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/summa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.