sum meaning and definition

SUM noun

Definition of sum (noun)

1. a quantity of money
   • "he borrowed a large sum"; "the amount he had in cash was insufficient"
   • synonyms: amount, amount of money, sum of money
2. a quantity obtained by the addition of a group of numbers
   • synonyms: amount, total
3. the final aggregate
   • "the sum of all our troubles did not equal the misery they suffered"
   • synonyms: sum total, summation
4. the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience
   • "the gist of the prosecutor's argument"; "the heart and soul of the Republican Party"; "the nub of the story"
   • synonyms: center, centre, core, essence, gist, heart, heart and soul, inwardness, kernel, marrow, meat, nitty-gritty, nub, pith, substance
5. the whole amount
   • synonyms: aggregate, total, totality
6. a set containing all and only the members of two or more given sets
   • "let C be the union of the sets A and B"
   • synonyms: join, union

SUM verb

Definition of sum (verb)

1. be a summary of
   • "The abstract summarizes the main ideas in the paper"
   • synonyms: sum up, summarise, summarize
2. determine the sum of
   • "Add all the people in this town to those of the neighboring town"
   • synonyms: add, add together, add up, sum up, summate, tally, tot, tot up, total, tote up