as in deduction
the act or an instance of taking away from a total
the restaurant may not have raised the price, but there's definitely been a subtraction in the number of fries in a side order
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Recent Examples of subtraction
Just one or two servings of beans daily amounts to a subtraction of less-healthy food options, leading to even more benefits.
—
Becky Upham, EverydayHealth.com, 18 Oct. 2024
Each skill level builds on the previous one—multiplication and division, for example, build on addition and subtraction—and there are many more levels of explicit skill knowledge in math than in reading.
—Jaimie Seaton, Scientific American, 29 Mar. 2024
Remarkably, the rudimentary tools that the ancient Greeks used to draw their geometric diagrams perfectly match the natural operations of modern-day algebra: addition (+), subtraction (–), multiplication (x), division (/) and taking square roots (√).
—Jack Murtagh, Scientific American, 12 Sep. 2024
Cases of addition by subtraction on the roster are sort of rare.
—Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune, 11 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for subtraction 
Becky Upham, EverydayHealth.com, 18 Oct. 2024
Each skill level builds on the previous one—multiplication and division, for example, build on addition and subtraction—and there are many more levels of explicit skill knowledge in math than in reading.
—Jaimie Seaton, Scientific American, 29 Mar. 2024
Remarkably, the rudimentary tools that the ancient Greeks used to draw their geometric diagrams perfectly match the natural operations of modern-day algebra: addition (+), subtraction (–), multiplication (x), division (/) and taking square roots (√).
—Jack Murtagh, Scientific American, 12 Sep. 2024
Cases of addition by subtraction on the roster are sort of rare.
—Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune, 11 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for subtraction
Thesaurus Entries Near subtraction
Cite this Entry
“Subtraction.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/subtraction. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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