sum

See also: Appendix:Variations of "sum"

Languages (23)

Translingual • English

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Translingual

Etymology

Clipping of English Sumo.

Symbol

sum

1. (international standards, obsolete) Former ISO 639-3 language code for Sumo-Mayangna.

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: sŭm, IPA^(key): /sʌm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌm
• Homophone: some

Etymology 1

From Middle English summe, from Old French summe, from Latin summa (“highest point; sum”), from summus (“highest”).

Noun

sum (plural sums)

1. A quantity obtained by addition or aggregation.

   Synonyms: (when many numbers are involved, or in figurative use) sum total, total, totality

   The sum of 3 and 4 is 7.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 1:2, columns 1–2:

     Take yee the ſumme of all the Congregation of the children of Iſrael, […]

   • a. 2004, Jimmy Wales, quotee, “Wikipedia:Prime objective”, in Wikipedia:

     "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing."

2. (often plural) An arithmetic computation, especially one posed to a student as an exercise (not necessarily limited to addition).

   Synonyms: calculation, computation

   We're learning about division, and the sums are tricky.

   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “The Emigrants”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 572:

     […] a large sheet of paper […] covered with long sums […]

   • 1981, Lisa Valentin, quoting Richie Benaud, “The day Richie Benaud stood up for principle over patriotism”, in Stuff‎, published 11 April 2015:

     "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."

3. A quantity of money.

   Synonyms: amount, quantity of money, sum of money

   a tidy sum

   the sum of forty pounds

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 22:28, column 1:

     […] With a great ſumme obteined I this freedome.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria:

     Merchant Opold: This one promised compensation for services rendered. It humbly suggests that a sum of 250 credits would be most appropriate.
     Shepard: Would you have had any chance of getting this past customs without me? You can be a bit more generous.
     Merchant Opold: The other's words possess the discomforting ring of truth.
     Merchant Opold: This one could raise the sum to 500 credits. That is half this one's profit taken by the other. It can offer no more.

4. A summary; the principal points or thoughts when viewed together; the substance.

   Synonyms: compendium, summation; see also Thesaurus:summary

   This is the sum of all the evidence in the case.

   This is the sum and substance of his objections.

5. A central idea or point; gist.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:gist

6. (rare or literary) The utmost degree; the greatest or most perfect realization (of some concept).

   Synonyms: summit; see also Thesaurus:summit

   • 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 as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1158–1159:

     Thus I have told thee all my State, and brought / My Storie to the ſum of earthly bliſs […]

   • 1877, Rev. Thomas H. Leale, chapter 2, in A Homiletic Commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes‎, page 32:

     Our wisdom and skill cannot save us from accidents, pains, and from that sum of all fears and distresses—death.

7. (obsolete) An old English measure of corn equal to the quarter.
   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 207:

     The sum is also used for the quarter, and the strike for the bushel.

Hyponyms

• checksum
• empty sum
• nullary sum

Derived terms

• 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
• sum and substance
• sum assured
• sum of best
• sum of its parts
• sum of parts
• sum-total
• sum up
• sum-up
• vector sum
• wedge sum
• zero-sum
• zero-sum game

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to sum

• summand
• summary
• summation
• summative

Translations

quantity obtained by addition or aggregation

Albanian: shumë (sq) Arabic: مَجْمُوع m (majmūʕ) Armenian: գումար (hy) (gumar) Asturian: suma f Bashkir: нәтижә (nətijə) Belarusian: су́ма f (súma) Bulgarian: су́ма (bg) f (súma), сбор (bg) m (sbor) Catalan: suma (ca) f Cebuano: tingob, sumada Chinese: Mandarin: 總和 / 总和 (zh) (zǒnghé), 總數 / 总数 (zh) (zǒngshù) Czech: součet (cs) m Dutch: som (nl) f Finnish: summa (fi) French: somme (fr) f Galician: suma (gl) f Georgian: ჯამი (ǯami) German: Summe (de) f Greek: άθροισμα (el) n (áthroisma) Hebrew: סְכוּם (he) m (s'khum) Hungarian: összeg (hu) Icelandic: summa f, samtala f Ingrian: summa Italian: somma (it) f Japanese: 総額 (ja) (そうがく, sōgaku) Khmer: ផលបូក (phɑlbouk) Korean: 합계(合計) (hapgye), 총화(總和) (chonghwa) Latin: summa f Macedonian: сума f (suma), збир m (zbir) Malay: hasil tambah (ms), jumlah Malayalam: തുക (ml) (tuka) Maori: tapeke, otinga tāpiri Norwegian: Bokmål: sum (no) m Nynorsk: sum m Oromo: ida'ama Persian: مجموع (fa) (majmu') Plautdietsch: Somm f Polish: suma (pl) f Portuguese: soma (pt) f Quechua: qullu Romanian: sumă (ro) f Russian: су́мма (ru) f (súmma) Scottish Gaelic: suim f Serbo-Croatian: zbroj (sh) m Cyrillic: зби̑р m Roman: zbȋr (sh) m Slovak: súčet m Slovene: vsota f Spanish: suma (es) f, adición (es) f Swahili: jumla (sw) Swedish: summa (sv) c Tagalog: dagup Tibetan: བསྡོམས་འབོར (bsdoms 'bor), བསྡོམས་གྲངས (bsdoms grangs), ཁྱོན་བསྡོམས (khyon bsdoms), ཁྱོན་འབོར (khyon 'bor) Turkish: toplam (tr), yekûn (tr) Ugaritic: 𐎚𐎂𐎎𐎗 (tgmr) Ukrainian: су́ма (uk) f (súma) Vietnamese: tổng số (vi)

arithmetic problem

Albanian: njehësim Bulgarian: зада́ча (bg) f (zadáča) Dutch: rekensom (nl) f, som (nl) f Finnish: laskutehtävä French: calcul (fr) m Greek: πράξη (el) f (práxi) Italian: somma (it) f Norwegian: Bokmål: sum (no) m Polish: suma (pl) f Portuguese: soma (pt) f, adição (pt) f Romanian: sumă (ro) f Russian: зада́ча (ru) f (zadáča) Swedish: matematikexempel n, matematikuppgift c, räkneuppgift (sv) c

quantity of money

Arabic: مَبْلَغ m (mablaḡ) Armenian: գումար (hy) (gumar) Bulgarian: сума (bg) f (suma) Catalan: suma (ca) f Cebuano: kantidad Chinese: Mandarin: 金額 / 金额 (zh) (jīn'é) Czech: suma (cs), částka (cs) Dutch: som (nl) f Finnish: summa (fi) French: somme (fr) f Galician: contía f Georgian: რაოდენობა (raodenoba), ოდენობა (odenoba) German: Summe (de) f Greek: ποσό (el) n (posó) Hebrew: סְכוּם (he) m (s'khum) Icelandic: upphæð (is) f Ingrian: summa Italian: somma (it) f Japanese: 金額 (ja) (きんがく, kingaku) Korean: 금액(金額) (ko) (geumaek), 액수(額數) (ko) (aeksu) Malayalam: തുക (ml) (tuka) Maori: pūranga moni Norwegian: Bokmål: sum (no) m, beløp (no) n Nynorsk: sum m, beløp n Polish: suma (pl) f Portuguese: quantia (pt) f Romanian: sumă (ro) f Russian: су́мма (ru) f (súmma) Scottish Gaelic: suim f Spanish: cantidad (es) f, suma (es) f Swedish: belopp (sv) n, summa (sv) c Tibetan: ཁྱོན་བསྡོམས (khyon bsdoms), དངུལ་འབོར (dngul 'bor) Turkish: meblağ (tr)

summary — see summary

central idea or point

Bulgarian: съ́щност (bg) f (sǎ́štnost) Latin: summa f Russian: суть (ru) f (sutʹ) Swedish: kontenta (sv) c, kärna (sv) c

summit — see summit

obsolete: old English measure of corn

Latin: summa f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Telugu: (please verify) మొత్తం (te) (mottaṁ), (please verify) కూడిక (te) (kūḍika), (please verify) లెక్క (te) (lekka)

See also

Other terms used in arithmetic operations:

• successor
• addition, summation:

  (augend) + (addend) = (total)

  (summand) + (summand) + (summand)... = (sum)

• subtraction:

  (minuend) − (subtrahend) = (difference)

• multiplication, factorization:

  (multiplier) × (multiplicand) = (product)

  (factor) × (factor) × (factor)... = (product)

• division:

  (dividend) ÷ (divisor) = (quotient)

  (numerator) / (denominator) = (quotient)

  Or sometimes = (quotient) with (remainder) remaining

• exponentiation:

  (base) ^(exponent) = (power)

• root extraction:

  ^(degree) √ (radicand) = (root)

• logarithmization:

  log_(base) (antilogarithm) = (logarithm)

Advanced hyperoperations: tetration, pentation, hexation

Verb

sum (third-person singular simple present sums, present participle summing, simple past and past participle summed)

1. (transitive) To add together.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:add up

   • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 250b:

     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.

2. (transitive) To give a summary of.

   Synonyms: sum up, summarize

Translations

to add together

Albanian: mbledh (sq), nje(gheg) Bulgarian: сумирам (sumiram), събирам (bg) (sǎbiram) Dutch: optellen (nl), bijeentellen (nl) Finnish: summata (fi), ynnätä (fi) (old), laskea yhteen French: additionner (fr) Georgian: აჯამვა (aǯamva) German: summieren (de) Greek: αθροίζω (el) (athroízo) Italian: sommare (it) Polish: sumować (pl) impf, zsumować pf, zsumowywać impf Portuguese: somar (pt) Russian: сумми́ровать (ru) impf or pf (summírovatʹ), скла́дывать (ru) impf (skládyvatʹ), сложи́ть (ru) pf (složítʹ) Spanish: sumar (es) Swedish: addera (sv), summera (sv) Turkish: toplamak (tr)

give a summary of — see summarize

References

• sum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

 Som (currency) on Wikipedia

 Kyrgyzstani som on Wikipedia

 Uzbekistani sum on Wikipedia

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.

Alternative forms

• som, soum

Noun

sum (plural sums or sumy)

1. The basic unit of money in Kyrgyzstan.
2. The basic unit of money in Uzbekistan.

Translations

basic unit of money in Kyrgyzstan — see also som

Estonian: somm Kazakh: сом (som) Swedish: som (sv) c Ukrainian: сом (som) Uyghur: سوم (som)

basic unit of money in Uzbekistan — see also som

Estonian: somm Kazakh: сом (som) Russian: сум (ru) m (sum) Swedish: som (sv) c Uyghur: سوم (som)

Etymology 3

Determiner

sum

1. (African-American Vernacular, Internet slang, text messaging) Eye dialect spelling of some.
   • 2022 August 6, @npreeko, Twitter‎, archived from the original on 27 January 2024:

     Females can smell when they nigga doing sum sneaky shit 😂

Pronoun

sum

1. (African-American Vernacular, Internet slang, text messaging) Pronunciation spelling of something.

   Synonym: sumn

   • 2022 January 17, @TheWeeklyShift, Twitter‎, archived from the original on 27 January 2024:

     Tony hawk such a fire name bro was bound to do sum cool

   • 2022 March 15, @UNITYTX, Twitter‎, archived from the original on 27 January 2024:

     we got a lil sum goin on over here

   • 2022 August 16, @Theylovetripp, Twitter‎, archived from the original on 27 January 2024:

     21 went a lil sum like this🎈

   • 2022 September 22, @ella_thereal, Twitter‎, archived from the original on 27 January 2024:

     It's good to have a man but that ain't sum I need

   • 2023 April 22, @noonie_2x, Twitter‎, archived from the original on 27 January 2024:

     ion like no ngga that make me repeat myself , why tf you steady doing sum ion like

Etymology 4

English Wikipedia has an article on:

sum (country subdivision)

Wikipedia

From Mongolian сум (sum), from Manchu ᠨᡳᡵᡠ (niru, “a large arrow, militia company, district”). Ultimately from Proto-Mongolic *sumun (“arrow”).

Alternative forms

• somon (in Buryatia, Russia)
• sumon (in Tuva, Russia)
• sumu (sometimes in Inner Mongolia, China)

Noun

sum (plural sums)

1. 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.

Further reading

• “sum”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “sum”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “sum”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

See also

etymologically unrelated terms

• choy sum
• dim sum

Anagrams

• mus', UMs, Muş, MSU, Mus, mus, UMS, ums, mu's, mus.

Aromanian

Alternative forms

• sun, su

Etymology

From Latin subtus, from sub. Compare Romanian sub.

Preposition

sum

1. under

Czech

Etymology 1

Noun

sum

1. genitive plural of suma

Etymology 2

Noun

sum

1. genitive plural of sumo

Danish

Etymology

From Latin summa.

Noun

sum c (singular definite summen, plural indefinite summer)

1. a sum (addition or aggregation)

   Hvad er summen af 2+2?

   What's the sum of 2+2?

2. a sum (amount of money)

Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse sem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sʊmː/
• Rhymes: -ʊmː

Conjunction

sum

1. like, as
2. when, as

Particle

sum (relative particle)

1. that, who, which

Synonyms

• ið

Gothic

Romanization

sum

1. romanization of 𐍃𐌿𐌼

Hausa

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sùm/
  • (Standard Kano Hausa) IPA^(key): [sɪ̀m]

Ideophone

sùm

1. alternative form of gùm (“smelling bad”)

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʏːm

Adjective

sum

1. inflection of sumur (“some”):
   1. nominative feminine singular
   2. nominative/accusative neuter plural

   Ég þekkti sum barnanna. ― I knew some of the children.

Kavalan

Noun

sum

1. urine

Khalaj

Perso-Arabic		سُم

Alternative forms

• süm

Etymology

From Persian سم (som).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sum/

Dialectal forms

• (hoof)
  • (Talkh Ab) IPA^(key): [sʊ̞m]
• (fingernail)
  • (Esfid) IPA^(key): [sʊm]

Noun

sum (definite accusative sumı, plural sumlar)

1. hoof
2. fingernail

   Synonyms: məccə, tırnaq

Declension

Declension of sum

	singular	plural
nominative	sum	sumlar
genitive	sumııñ	sumlarııñ
dative	sumqa	sumlarqa
definite accusative	sumı	sumları
locative	sumça	sumlarça
ablative	sumda	sumlarda
instrumental	sumla	sumlarla
equative	sumvâra	sumlarvâra

References

• Doerfer, Gerhard (1971), Khalaj Materials, Indiana University, →ISBN
• Doerfer, Gerhard (1987), Lexik und Sprachgeographie des Chaladsch [Lexicon and Language Geography of Khalaj] (in German), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, →ISBN