Dictionary

subtract en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /səbˈtɹækt/ (General-American)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin subtractus, perfect passive participle of subtrahō (“to draw from beneath; withdraw, remove”); from sub (“under”) + trahō (“to draw, pull, drag”).

Meanings

1. (transitive) To remove or reduce; especially to reduce a quantity or number.
   • I could add and subtract and multiply and divide, but I entered the wilderness when words became equations. […] The axioms of arithmetic imply that when you expand (a + b)², for example, you get a² + 2ab + b² in the following way: (a + b)² is equal to (a + b)(a + b). Each term in one parentheses multiplies the terms in the other: a × a = a² ; a × b = ab; b × a = ab; b × b = b². Combining the terms, a² + ab + ab + b² = a² + 2ab + b². In a similar way, a² – b², a squared number subtracted from another squared number, called a difference of squares, becomes (a – b)(a + b), which becomes a² + ab – ab – b², which is a² – b². 2022 August 7, Alec Wilkinson, “Could learning algebra in my 60s make me smarter?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2023:
   • If you subtract the $100 for gas from the total cost, it was a fairly inexpensive trip.

Forms

Antonyms

summate · add

Deriveds

subtractable · subtracter · unsubtracted · missubtract · subtractive

Holonyms

arithmetic

Hypernyms

calculate

Relateds

subtractor · subtraction

Synonyms

take · subtract · take away · unadd

Translations (72)

rup scad (to remove or reduce) · tl bawasin (to remove or reduce) · de subtrahieren (to remove or reduce) · no trekke fra (to remove or reduce) · tl magbawas (to remove or reduce) · no subtrahere (to remove or reduce) · alt айрып ийер (to remove or reduce) · km សង (to remove or reduce) · qu qichuy (to remove or reduce) · es restar (to remove or reduce) · mi tango (to remove or reduce) · alt айрып алар (to remove or reduce) · fr soustraire (to remove or reduce) · sv dra ifrån (to remove or reduce) · cmn 減 /减 (to remove or reduce) · ko 빼다 (to remove or reduce) · ca sostreure (to remove or reduce) · ast restar (to remove or reduce) · ro sustrage (to remove or reduce) · grc ἀφαιρέω (to remove or reduce) · uk відня́ти (to remove or reduce) · hu levon (to remove or reduce) · it sottrarre (to remove or reduce) · ru вычита́ть (to remove or reduce) · ca restar (to remove or reduce) · el αφαιρώ (to remove or reduce) · ro scădea (to remove or reduce) · la dēdūcō (to remove or reduce) · cmn 扣除 (to remove or reduce) · pl odejmować (to remove or reduce) · izh vähentää (to remove or reduce) · eo subtrahi (to remove or reduce) · es substraer (to remove or reduce) · es sustraer (to remove or reduce) · fi vähentää (to remove or reduce) · gl restar (to remove or reduce) · bg извадя (to remove or reduce) · be адыма́ць (to remove or reduce) · mn хасах (to remove or reduce) · gl subtraer (to remove or reduce) · hy հանել (to remove or reduce) · la subtrahō (to remove or reduce) · hu kivon (to remove or reduce) · ja 減らす (to remove or reduce) · nl in mindering brengen (to remove or reduce) · de abziehen (to remove or reduce) · km លស់ (to remove or reduce) · ru отнима́ть (to remove or reduce) · sh oduzeti (to remove or reduce) · bcl ina (to remove or reduce) · vi trừ (to remove or reduce) · sh одузети (to remove or reduce) · sv subtrahera (to remove or reduce) · am ቀነሰ (to remove or reduce) · nl aftrekken (to remove or reduce) · alt кезип таштап салар (to remove or reduce) · id mengurangi (to remove or reduce) · be адня́ць (to remove or reduce) · pl odjąć (to remove or reduce) · th ลบ (to remove or reduce) · ru отня́ть (to remove or reduce) · eo depreni (to remove or reduce) · mh bōk (to remove or reduce) · bg изваждам (to remove or reduce) · cmn 減去 /减去 (to remove or reduce) · yue 減 /减 (to remove or reduce) · pt subtrair (to remove or reduce) · ru вы́честь (to remove or reduce) · cs odečíst (to remove or reduce) · ja 引く (to remove or reduce) · uk відніма́ти (to remove or reduce) · ast sustraer (to remove or reduce)