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Subtraction is the taking of one number away from another — the maths operation written with a minus sign: 10 − 4 = 6. It is one of the four basic operations children learn (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), and in a classroom it is the plain, ordinary word: "We're doing subtraction today." It names the process, not the answer. The answer to a subtraction is called the difference. And note that it is normally uncountable when you mean the skill or the operation — "he's good at subtraction" — but countable when you mean one particular sum on the page: "there are twenty subtractions on this ." Outside maths it appears now and then in a more careful, written way, meaning the removing of something from a whole: "the subtraction of tax from your salary." That use is formal; in everyday talk people just say taking away, deducting, or knocking off. There is also a slightly literary use where writers talk about a life or a scene being defined by subtraction — by what has been removed rather than added — but a student will meet that rarely, and only in reading.
減法;相減(數學課本上就叫「減法」,答案叫「差」)
組成subtract + -ion (the suffix that turns an action into a noun). Subtract itself is Latin sub- (under, away) + trahere (to pull, to drag) — so the picture inside the word is of pulling something away from underneath a pile.
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
subtractionnoun/səbˈtɹækʃən/
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arithmeticThe process of subtracting a number from another.
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arithmeticA calculation involving subtracting.
- The teacher has set us ten subtractions to do by tomorrow.
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The removal of something.
- The subtraction of the wealth from the economy will result in recession.
資料來源:英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary(CC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。