sum
noun OPAL WOPAL S
/sʌm/
/sʌm/
Idioms - [countable] sum (of something) an amount of money
- You will be fined the sum of £200.
- a large sum of money
- The judge awarded them an undisclosed six-figure sum in damages.
- Huge sums have been invested in this project.
- The team has raised substantial sums for local charities.
Extra ExamplesTopics Moneyb2- £200 was an astronomical sum of money in 1547.
- For his first book he received the princely sum of $400.
- He joined the club two years ago for a record sum.
- It seemed an absurdly high sum to pay for a coat.
- Some of the paintings should fetch a tidy sum at today's auction.
- The charity pays a nominal sum to lease the premises.
- The gangsters offered him a sum equivalent to a whole year's earnings.
- The landlord has the right to recover any sums payable under this lease.
- We eventually agreed a sum and I gave him a cheque.
- You will have to go to court to recover these sums.
- a project that cost vast sums of public money
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- considerable
- generous
- good
- …
- borrow
- earn
- fetch
- …
- be due
- be payable
- be equal to something
- …
- a sum of money
- [countable, usually singular] sum (of something) the number you get when you add two or more numbers together
- The sum of 7 and 12 is 19.
- Calculate the sum of the following figures.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + sum- calculate
- find
- work out
- …
- sum of
- greater, less, more, etc. than the sum of its/the parts
- (also sum total)[singular] the sum of something all of something, especially when you think that it is not very much
- This is the sum of my achievements so far.
- [countable] a simple problem that involves calculating numbers
- to do a sum in your head
- I was good at sums at school.
- If I've got my sums right, I should be able to afford the rent.
Extra Examples- I did a quick sum to work out how much it would cost.
- The company got its sums wrong when estimating how many customers it would attract.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- difficult
- easy
- do
- get your sums right/wrong
see also dim sum
Word OriginMiddle English: via Old French from Latin summa ‘main part, sum total’, feminine of summus ‘highest’.
Idioms
be greater/more than the sum of its parts
- to be better or more effective as a group than you would think just by looking at the individual members of the group
- The team is greater than the sum of its parts.
in sum
- (formal) used to introduce a short statement of the main points of a discussion, speech, etc.
- In sum, we have no chance of winning the case.