sum

«sum» in Mova's school dictionary: the answer you get when you add numbers together: the sum… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun, verb (sum, sums, summed, summing)

meaning for a pupil

1) The sum is the answer you get when you add numbers together: the sum of 3 and 4 is 7. tree →

2) A sum (UK) is a maths problem: do your sums. tree →

3) A sum of money is an amount of money. tree →

4) To sum up is to say the main points briefly. tree →

sense in the lessons

Maths: the result of addition; a strong clue for addition; «the sum of two numbers is 20» — find the missing number by subtracting. Everyday: a large sum of money, lump sum. Writing: to sum up, in sum.

examples

• What is the sum of 7 and 8? tree →
• The sum of two numbers is 20. tree →
• She saved a sum of 50 dollars. tree →
• Find the sum of all the apples. tree →
• We did ten sums in class today. tree →
• The sum of the angles in a triangle is 180 degrees. tree →
• To sum up, the plan worked well. tree →
• Add the column to find the sum. tree →
• "Ah," said Nigel, "can you do sums?" tree →

note

Countable noun; verb doubles the m: summed. A strong clue for addition. Trap: if the sum and one number are given, find the other by subtracting. Trap: «sum» sounds like «some». In the UK «sums» can mean any maths exercises, not only adding.

In the corpora

• Computers are fast at sums and storing facts but weak at common sense, such as knowing when a joke hurts someone.
• Some chatbots guess numbers like words, so big sums can come out wrong; check with a calculator.
• Fine for checking, bad if you never learn your sums.
• Over a hundred years ago a horse called Clever Hans seemed to do sums by tapping his hoof.
• Stole a horse—sold him for a large sum of money!

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «sum» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.