How to Use minus in a Sentence

minus

1 of 3 preposition

• He left the restaurant minus his hat.
• But if it’s been minus 10 and the temps soar to 20, deer get lazy again.
  — Scott Bestul, Field & Stream, 6 Sep. 2023
• Turns out, hers is the experts’ way (minus the licking).
  — Chantal Martineau, Bon Appétit, 7 Nov. 2019
• Both corners of the eyes are full of glittery smidgins and the rest of the face (minus the lips) are set for a natural look.
  — Emy Rodriguez Flores, Redbook, 9 Dec. 2019
• So minus Frederick, there seems to be a need at center and maybe even for some depth.
  — Calvin Watkins, Dallas News, 10 Apr. 2020
• Delta Junction has seen some weather near minus 20 this month out in the Barley project.
  — John Schandelmeier, Anchorage Daily News, 16 Apr. 2023
• Wind chills are forecast to fall to minus 20 to minus 35 degrees.
  — Joe Taschler, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 26 Jan. 2022
• It’s got all the festive vibes of a winter wonderland minus the slush.
  — Cristian Esteban, Rolling Stone, 19 Oct. 2023
• The temperature in LaCrosse is forecast to drop to minus 17 overnight.
  — Joe Taschler, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 26 Jan. 2022
• Carrying on as Live minus him was just going to be hard.
  — Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 2 Nov. 2022
• Wind chills are expected to reach up to minus 20 degrees.
  — Erin McGarry, NBC News, 23 Dec. 2022
• San Diego had one of the largest outflows — 2,100 users — which measured the number of home searches from the metro minus the number looking to move here.
  — Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Nov. 2023
• The coronation concert ended the short video, with clips of the Wales' family minus Prince Louis heading up the stairs to the royals' box to watch the concert.
  — Kimberlee Speakman, Peoplemag, 13 May 2023
• Want to head off on your own wine-country jaunt, minus the Sideways drama and tourist traffic?
  — Mike Desimone and Jeff Jenssen, Robb Report, 16 Dec. 2023
• In the production of LNG, gas is chilled to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit and shrunk to a liquid that can be stored and shipped to terminals.
  — Georgi Kantchev, WSJ, 22 Aug. 2022
• Unlike last week’s game at the center of the college football universe, this one will kick on a cold Starkville morning minus the buzz.
  — Michael Casagrande | [e-mail], al, 15 Nov. 2019
• The overnight temperature in Chicago was around minus 9 degrees but felt like minus 33 with the wind chill.
  — NBC News, 16 Jan. 2024
• In trade, that usually refers to the trade deficit — that is, America’s exports to a country minus its imports.
  — Lydia Depillis, ProPublica, 13 Oct. 2020
• One county coach said her girls lacrosse team is preparing for the playoffs minus its seniors.
  — Pat Stoetzer, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 31 May 2021
• The Heat’s new starting lineup finished the loss with a plus/minus of minus 14 in 13 minutes together.
  — Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 26 Jan. 2024
• First, total goal difference (all of the team’s goals scored across their three matches minus all of their goals conceded).
  — Time, 29 Nov. 2022
• Much of the ethanol dissipates, leaving you with a flaky pie crust minus the alcohol flavor.
  — Aaron Hutcherson, Washington Post, 10 Nov. 2023
• Another is that Tesla is a $660 billion growth stock minus the growth.
  — Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 25 Jan. 2024
• Except for the snow, and temperatures that dipped this month to minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
  — New York Times, 20 Mar. 2021
• And looking at nothing at all Jay Jones shows you what Las Vegas looks like minus 42 million people.
  — Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 2020
• Surplus proceeds from a foreclosure is money from the sale of a property minus the taxes and fees owed to the county.
  — Nushrat Rahman, Detroit Free Press, 29 Aug. 2023
• Like, of course, Radiohead minus a few members made an awesome record.
  — Corbin Reiff, SPIN, 28 Dec. 2022
• This one isn’t a looker, but what a tasty option for those looking for some Boston cream joy minus the dairy component.
  — Pamela Wright, BostonGlobe.com, 22 June 2023
• But net migration — the number of people who moved into the state, minus those who moved out — shrank markedly compared with the two previous years.
  — Sahana Jayaraman, The Arizona Republic, 16 Mar. 2024
• Over the weekend, temperatures in much of the Plains, the Midwest and the Northeast plunged into the single digits; wind chills were as low as minus 20 to minus 30 degrees in some areas.
  — Christopher Cann, USA TODAY, 22 Jan. 2024

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minus

2 of 3 noun

• Put the minus to the left of the number.
• She decided that the pluses of owning a home outweighed the minuses.
• Some employers see a lack of experience as a real minus.
• But in the end, even the the Beavers’ C-minus game was good enough.
  — Joe Freeman, oregonlive, 4 June 2022
• But Zeller had a plus-minus of minus-17 on the evening.
  — oregonlive, 5 Nov. 2021
• Matt Bradley had the best plus/minus at plus-27 points with him on the floor.
  — Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Mar. 2023
• He was tied with Trey Stewart in plus-minus, and the two led the team in that stat.
  — Alex Vejar, The Salt Lake Tribune, 19 Nov. 2022
• Bucky Irving opened the drive with runs of three and minus-one.
  — oregonlive, 22 Oct. 2022
• Wind chills into the minus-teens to minus-30s are likely in the mountains to the west.
  — Ian Livingston, Washington Post, 21 Dec. 2022
• As a result, the Grizzlies have a league-best plus/minus of 4.8 points in the first half.
  — Michael Arinze, Chicago Tribune, 20 Jan. 2023
• The training staff tied for 30th, while the weight room carded a C-minus.
  — San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Mar. 2023
• Alleyne had a plus-minus of plus-27 in his 22 minutes, the highest on the team.
  — Joe Arruda, Hartford Courant, 18 Dec. 2022
• But still, in 20 years, our grades have ranged from an A-plus-plus-plus to a total F-minus.
  — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 18 Aug. 2022
• Robinson had the highest plus-minus on the team, finishing plus-21 for the game.
  — Cameron Teague Robinson, The Courier-Journal, 28 Jan. 2022
• In contrast, the teammate with the next-highest plus-minus posted a plus-15.
  — Andrew Greif, Los Angeles Times, 18 Nov. 2022
• Watford, who led the team in plus/minus on Friday with a plus-19, is a sneaky good passer.
  — oregonlive, 3 Feb. 2023
• Paul George led the Clippers with 30 points but turned the ball over eight times and was minus-9 in the plus/minus category.
  — Los Angeles Times, 28 Nov. 2021
• The minus strand is then copied to produce a positive strand.
  — William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 28 Oct. 2021
• The Magic’s average plus/minus in the new year has been minus-5.3 — the 22nd-worst mark in the league — despite not having a win.
  — Khobi Price, orlandosentinel.com, 13 Jan. 2022
• And then there is the ending, which also has plusses and minuses.
  — Dalton Ross, EW.com, 18 May 2023
• The temperature is expected to remain in the minus teens for the first half of the week, Fuentes said.
  — Colleen Shalbystaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 21 Jan. 2023
• Also a reason that Duncan has the 15th best real plus-minus in the league.
  — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 27 Apr. 2022
• In his first seven minutes on the court, Rudy Gobert had a +25 plus-minus.
  — Andy Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 14 Feb. 2022
• Collins and Wallace both scored 15 points apiece, second most on the team, and finished the game with plus-40 plus/minus ratings.
  — The Courier-Journal, 12 Aug. 2022
• This writer graded each team and gave the Lions an A-minus for their Day 1 haul.
  — Kirkland Crawford, Detroit Free Press, 29 Apr. 2022
• Billups in no way blamed the bench for the loss despite four of the starters finishing with plus in the plus-minus category.
  — oregonlive, 5 Nov. 2021
• But Portland scoring so many on the power play, which don’t count in plus-minus, helped.
  — Dylan Bumbarger, oregonlive, 9 Feb. 2022
• But the work on Saturday knocks the grade down a small bit down from an A-minus on Friday to a B-plus today.
  — Tim Bielik, cleveland, 30 Apr. 2022
• Offensively, the Ravens have had their ups and downs, but more pluses than minuses.
  — Mike Preston, Baltimore Sun, 26 Jan. 2024
• Even in cases where peripheral complications arise, such as with Austin, the advantages of the surgery far outweigh the minuses.
  — Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY, 10 Jan. 2024

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minus

3 of 3 adjective

• But on the minus side, isn’t almost every angle the same for the big ball?
  — Dewayne Bevil, orlandosentinel.com, 2 Oct. 2019
• Thomas is at minus-one, as is Collin Morikawa, who followed a 73 with a 70.
  — Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2022
• The Seahawks have a turnover margin of plus-six, while the Eagles are minus-two.
  — Chris Wassel, USA TODAY Sportsbook Wire, 22 Nov. 2019
• By mid-April, the space looked like a real kitchen, minus counters.
  — Joan Elovitz Kazan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2 June 2022
• Friday could bring much of the same, with wind chills as low as minus 45 degrees.
  — CBS News, 19 Dec. 2022
• The wind chill is predicted to reach a low of minus 20 degrees.
  — Max Londberg and Andy Marso, kansascity, 26 Dec. 2017
• Ezekiel Elliott lost 4 yards on the other two minus-runs.
  — Dallas News, 3 Oct. 2022
• This was minus Chris Paul, who was out with a fractured right thumb, and Cam Johnson (quad).
  — Duane Rankin, The Arizona Republic, 29 Mar. 2022
• The winds would rise, and the temperature would fall to minus 60 degrees.
  — Marcin Jamkowski, Outside Online, 11 Apr. 2018
• The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus three percentage points.
  — Mahita Gajanan, Time, 30 Aug. 2017
• Count back from 100 to one by minus six, then subtracting four.
  — James Crepea, AL.com, 5 Apr. 2018
• La Crosse, Wisconsin, reached a record low of minus 19.
  — Chron, 15 Feb. 2021
• The minus 13 degrees temperature in Albany, New York, tied the record low for the date.
  — Dennis Romero, NBC News, 5 Feb. 2023
• The negative terminal will have a minus (-) sign and a black wire.
  — Liam Gravvat, USA TODAY, 26 July 2022
• Because the Roamers are good down to minus 30 degrees, the bag is also a solid start for cold nights when paired with these pads.
  — Wes Siler, Outside Online, 20 June 2019
• And while a minus tide opens more area, less than a minus tide might still yield decent digging.
  — Bill Monroe, oregonlive, 10 June 2023
• Start looking two or three hours before the low tide at minus levels.
  — Bill Monroe, oregonlive, 1 Apr. 2022
• On the minus side, that makes both bands slightly less relevant.
  — Scott Fowler, charlotteobserver, 21 Aug. 2017
• When there is a points tie, the first tiebreaker is goal difference (goals-for minus goals-against) in group matches.
  — C.j. Doon, baltimoresun.com, 13 June 2018
• This could be a first-round playoff preview but New Orleans is minus star big man Boogie Cousins for the rest of the season.
  — Greg Rajan, Houston Chronicle, 16 Mar. 2018
• The light was almost blindingly bright, in fact, but the brightness could be adjusted using the plus and minus buttons on the top of the light.
  — Ellen McAlpine, CNN Underscored, 5 Nov. 2020
• On the minus side, that makes nuclear war with N. Korea twice as likely.
  — Tierney McAfee, PEOPLE.com, 27 Sep. 2017
• On the minus side: getting there and distractions from colleagues.
  — WSJ, 14 Aug. 2021
• Vegas Vic opened the Patriots at minus 6 with an over/under of 48.
  — Philly.com Staff, Philly.com, 5 Feb. 2018
• William Pierce, 34, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and faces 36 months in prison, minus time served.
  — oregonlive, 12 Oct. 2019
• Wind chills as low as minus 27 were predicted there during the weekend.
  — Jenna Russell, New York Times, 3 Feb. 2023
• On the minus side, though: The hearty pile of toppings proved too much for a crust that, having absorbed so much tomato sauce in transit to us, had become limp and slimy.
  — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 3 Nov. 2017
• When Gasteyer finally took off her mask, not only were the judges (minus McCarthy) shocked, but many fans were too.
  — Martha Sorren, Woman's Day, 11 Dec. 2019
• Tamimi pled guilty to assault and incitement, and Lieberman sentenced her to eight months in prison, minus time served.
  — Batya Ungar-Sargon, The New York Review of Books, 17 June 2019
• This year’s team is on pace to finish with a negative turnover margin for the first time since 2017, when the SEC West title-winning team finished the season with a minus-one margin.
  — Tom Green | [e-mail], al, 3 Oct. 2022

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024