plus

Less common meanings

7. 7
   adjective

   Positive in nature, or bringing an advantage.

   The plus side of remote work is the time saved commuting.

   Reviewers counted the long battery life among the phone's plus points.

   UsageUsed before a noun, most often in on the plus side and plus point.

   Similarpositive, good, advantageous, favorable, beneficial

   Oppositeminus, negative

   Note

   It sits very close to the noun meaning "asset": calling someone a plus factor says much the same as calling them a plus.

8. 8
   higher gradeadjective

   Ranking slightly above the letter grade or mark that it follows.

   The professor gave her paper an A minus, not the A plus she had hoped for.

   The bank's credit rating was cut from A plus to A.

   Oppositeminus

   Note

   On paper it is usually just the symbol, A+ or B+, said aloud as "A plus". Its partner is minus, which marks a result just short of the grade, so B plus and A minus sit side by side on the scale. Credit agencies borrow the same pair, which is why a bank's rating can be cut from A plus to A. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Plus raises a letter grade; minus lowers it. berkeleyglobal.zendesk.com
   • B+ and A− are adjacent grades on a conventional plus/minus scale. registrar.berkeley.edu
   • Credit ratings also use plus and minus modifiers, making A+ to A a downgrade. spglobal.com
9. 9
   do sumsverbcolloquialtransitive

   To add a number or amount; to subject something to addition.

   "First you plus the two numbers, then you take away three," my daughter explained, showing me her math homework.

   If you plus the tax, the total comes to forty dollars.

   Similaradd, total, tally, sum

   Oppositesubtract, deduct

   Note

   Writers on early mathematics teaching use the word as a verb: a child "plussing 4" is performing the operation of adding four. The spelling of the inflected forms is unsettled. The doubled forms plussed and plussing compete with plused and plusing, and the third person appears as both pluses and plusses. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Writers on mathematics teaching use plus as a verb, including the expression “plussing 4” for adding four. en.wiktionary.org
   • The past and participial forms have both single-s and doubled-s spellings. en.wiktionary.org
   • Pluses is a third-person singular verb form. en.wiktionary.org
   • Plusses is a third-person singular verb form. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    above zeroadjective

    Being positive in value, rather than negative or equal to zero.

    After the correction, the spreadsheet showed a quarterly change of plus three percent.

    Our best defenseman finished the season plus twelve, the top mark on the team.

    Similarpositive

    Oppositeminus, negative

    Note

    In spoken mathematics, a positive sign is read aloud with this word: minus 2 times minus 2 equals plus four. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Negative two multiplied by negative two equals positive four, expressed aloud as given. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    nouncountable

    A positive amount or quantity, one greater than zero.

    In math class we learned that a minus times a minus gives a plus.

    Multiply a plus by a minus and you always end up with a minus.

    Oppositeminus, negative

12. 12
    electricadjective

    Designating positive electric charge or the positive terminal in a circuit.

    Engineers labeled the plus terminal to show where current leaves the source.

    Before you jump-start the car, find the plus terminal on the battery, which is usually under a red cover.

    Similarpositive

    Oppositeminus, negative

    Note

    Physics borrows the arithmetic pair for electricity: a battery has a plus pole and a minus pole, and the word labels the end that carries positive charge. In practice it sits before nouns such as pole, terminal or contact. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The arithmetic terms plus and minus were extended to electricity. psrc.aapt.org
    • A battery has positive and negative terminals, labelled plus and minus. petex.utexas.edu
    • The positive terminal carries positive charge. web.mit.edu
13. 13
    growverbintransitive

    To increase something, especially funding, pay or staff numbers, usually in the phrase plus up.

    The committee voted to plus up the training budget by ten percent.

    The agency plussed up its border staff before the holiday rush.

    Similarincrease, grow, mount, swell

    Oppositedecrease, fall, drop, diminish

    Note

    The verb is most at home in the phrase plus up, heard in US congressional hearings about budgets and pay, as in plussing up deputy positions or plussing up hazardous duty pay. Without up, Danny Fingeroth and Mike Manley's How to Create Comics (2006) uses it for enlarging a script by adding sequences. The phrase has a bureaucratic flavor, and in ordinary prose increase or boost reads more naturally. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The phrase plussing up deputy positions occurs in a US congressional hearing. govinfo.gov
    • The phrase plussing up hazardous duty pay occurs in a US congressional hearing. congress.gov
    • Danny Fingeroth and Mike Manley jointly wrote How to Create Comics: From Script to Print. twomorrows.com
    • The book uses plussing without up for adding sequences to a script. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    verbtransitive

    To improve something, especially by adding to it or by suggesting improvements rather than simply criticizing.

    The director wanted to plus every scene with extra detail.

    They plussed the proposal repeatedly until investors were impressed.

    Similarimprove, enhance, augment, boost, enrich

    Oppositeworsen

    Note

    Disney lore is where this sense lives. Pat Williams and Jim Denney's How to Be Like Walt (2004) has Walt plussing Mickey Mouse with sound and the Silly Symphonies with color. The construction is to plus something with something, and the word suggests continuous refinement ("constantly plussing it") rather than a single fix. In studio feedback it means building on someone's idea instead of only criticizing it. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • Pat Williams and Jim Denney wrote How to Be Like Walt. openlibrary.org
    • How to Be Like Walt was first published in 2004. simonandschuster.com
    • The book describes Walt plussing Mickey Mouse with sound and the Silly Symphonies with color. en.wiktionary.org
    • The improvement sense is documented in Disney's accounts of Walt's approach. sites.disney.com
    • The wording “constantly plussing it” is attested. en.wiktionary.org
    • Studio feedback called plussing involves adding constructive suggestions to criticism. davidburkus.com
15. 15
    approve onlineverbdatedtransitive

    To give a mark of approval to content on the Google+ social network.

    Users would plus posts they liked to boost their visibility.

    Everyone was plussing them or liking them or pinning them. The videos went viral.

    2014, Creativity, Inc.

    Similarlike, upvote

    Note

    Google+ gave the verb its brief life: to plus a post was to approve it there, and Lee Odden's Optimize (2012) advises plussing others' content and comments. Ed Catmull's Creativity, Inc. (2014) sets it beside liking and pinning. The usage is dated because it is tied to that one platform, and today it reads as the vocabulary of a particular period of social media. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Google+ supported marking content with approval using its +1 button. en.wikipedia.org
    • Lee Odden wrote Optimize, first published in 2012. wiley-vch.de
    • Optimize recommends plussing other people's content and comments. lib.ysu.am
    • Ed Catmull's Creativity, Inc. was first published in 2014. penguinrandomhouse.com
    • Creativity, Inc. places plussing alongside liking and pinning. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    verb

    To sell additional related items along with a customer's original purchase.

    Good will is also secured by plussing the original purchase with another article that goes appropriately with it.

    1920, The Current Business Cyclopedia: Business Digest
17. 17
    verb

    In crisis counseling, to frame what a person says or does in a positive, sympathetic light.
18. 18
    verb

    To dilute a homeopathic remedy in water and stir it, a process its practitioners hold to raise the remedy's potency.

    From the remaining water a second dilution can be prepared plussing it to the next slightly higher potency.

    2007, Kate Birch, Vaccine Free Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Contagious Disease with Homeopathy