- [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
See sum in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee sum in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishbe 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.
Check pronunciation:
sum