sum
- 1An amount of money taken as a single whole.
He inherited a considerable sum from his grandmother.
The charity raised a record sum during the campaign.
Similaramount
Note
Money talk keeps this sense in set phrases. A tidy sum means a comfortably large amount, and in the sum of forty pounds, of introduces the exact figure. The usage is old: the King James Bible of 1611 has "with a great summe obteined I this freedome."
- 2The total quantity reached by adding numbers or amounts together.
The accountant checked that the sum matched the invoices.
Adding the two columns gives a sum of just over a thousand.
Note
The word goes back to Latin summa, "highest point," from summus, "highest": a sense of height that resurfaces in the 'utmost degree' meaning. In use, the parts follow of: the sum of 3 and 4, or, in Jimmy Wales's phrase, "the sum of all human knowledge." Sum total doubles the idea for emphasis, while totality leans toward wholeness rather than arithmetic.
- 3To present the substance or main points of something in brief form.
The judge summed the evidence before the jury withdrew.
In closing, he tried to sum his entire career in one phrase.
Similarsummarize
Note
Used without a particle, as in summed the evidence, the verb has largely given way to the phrasal sum up. Sum up does the same job and also introduces a conclusion: To sum up, the plan failed. Summarize is the single-word alternative when a particle feels too casual.
- 4A summary giving the principal points or substance of something taken as a whole.
Before the vote, the chair gave a quick sum of the arguments on both sides.
The sum of the chapter can be stated in three sentences.
Similarsummary, overview, outline, digest, synopsis
Note
Here the total is made of ideas rather than numbers. Its most familiar setting is the doublet sum and substance, as in "the sum and substance of his objections," where the two nouns reinforce each other rather than adding distinct meanings. Compendium and summation are its nearest synonyms.
- 5To add quantities together to find their total.
The accountant summed the quarterly figures before the meeting.
To sum the votes, officials counted every ballot twice.
Oppositesubtract
Note
The verb doubles its m before an ending: summing, summed. Used without a particle, it takes the quantities themselves as its object, as in sum the figures. The particle still creeps in: a translation of Plato's Sophist has "summing them up together." For condensing an argument rather than numbers, see the summarizing verb.
Less common meanings
- 6An arithmetic problem, especially one set for a student as an exercise.
She finished the last sum just before the bell rang.
The test included one tricky sum about fractions.
Similarcalculation, computation
Note
Schoolroom arithmetic, and usually plural: the sums are tricky, a sheet covered with long sums. It is not limited to addition, and division counts too. Richie Benaud's complaint about a cricket captain who "got his sums wrong" shows the figurative step, where getting your sums wrong means misjudging any calculation behind a decision.
- 7A type of administrative district in Mongolia, parts of China, and Russia, ranking below a province in Mongolia.
Each sum in the province elects its own local administration.
The herders registered their livestock at the sum office.
Note
A third, unrelated word comes from Mongolian sum. It derives from Manchu niru, "a large arrow, militia company, district," and ultimately from Proto-Mongolic *sumun, "arrow." Its meanings run from arrow to militia company to territory. The rank varies by country: in Inner Mongolia a sum corresponds to a township, while in Mongolia it sits below the province.
- 8The highest degree or most perfect realization of something.
The cathedral stood as the sum of medieval craftsmanship.
Our wisdom and skill cannot save us from accidents, pains, and from that sum of all fears and distresses—death.
1877, Rev. Thomas H. Leale, A Homiletic Commentary on the Book of EcclesiastesSimilarpeak, height, summit, top, pinnacle
Note
A rare, literary use in which the Latin idea of "highest" comes back to the surface. Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) brings a story "to the sum of earthly bliss," and Thomas H. Leale in 1877 calls death "that sum of all fears and distresses." Its near neighbor is summit. Keep it for elevated prose, where it reads as a deliberate choice.
- 9The standard currency unit of Uzbekistan.
Visitors must convert their money into sum in Tashkent.
Every price at the bazaar was quoted in sum.
Note
Uzbekistan's currency shares the "pure gold" history of the Kyrgyz unit, and the Uzbek form of its name is soʻm. Because both currencies take the same spelling in English, name the country when the difference matters: an Uzbek sum and a Kyrgyz sum are not the same money.
- 10The standard currency unit of Kyrgyzstan.
Travelers exchange their currency for sum on arriving in Bishkek.
Prices at the market were all listed in sum.
Note
This is an unrelated borrowing from Central Asia. Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uyghur and Uzbek all have som, at heart meaning "pure," used as a shorthand for historical coins of pure gold. Despite the spelling, it has nothing to do with the arithmetic sum. The currency name simply happens to coincide with it in English.
- 11A former English unit of grain measure, equal to the quarter.
The sum is also used for the quarter, and the strike for the bushel.
1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in EnglandNote
Grain measures had their own vocabulary. In James Edwin Thorold Rogers's A History of Agriculture and Prices in England (1882), the sum stands for the quarter just as the strike stands for the bushel. The word is obsolete, so it belongs in historical writing about grain accounts and prices, not in modern measurement.
- 12
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English summe, borrowed via Old French summe from Latin summa ("highest point; sum"), which comes from summus ("highest").
Borrowed from Kazakh сом (som), Kyrgyz сом (som), Uyghur سوم (som), and Uzbek soʻm, all carrying the core meaning "pure" and used in elliptical reference to historical coins of pure gold.
From Mongolian сум (sum), from Manchu ᠨᡳᡵᡠ (niru, "a large arrow, militia company, district"), ultimately from Proto-Mongolic *sumun ("arrow").