"plus-minus sign" meaning in English

See plus-minus sign in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: plus-minus signs [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} plus-minus sign (plural plus-minus signs)
  1. (mathematics) the symbol ±, meaning "plus or minus", used to indicate the precision of an approximation (as in "The result is 10 ± 0.3", meaning the result is anywhere in the inclusive range from 9.7 to 10.3), or as a convenient shorthand for a quantity with two possible values of opposing sign and identical magnitude (as in "The roots of the equation x²-4=0 are ±2"). Wikipedia link: plus-minus sign Categories (topical): Mathematics, Symbols Related terms: minus-plus sign
    Sense id: en-plus-minus_sign-en-noun-6kyQSb7K Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Topics: mathematics, sciences

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for plus-minus sign meaning in English (1.9kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plus-minus signs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "plus-minus sign (plural plus-minus signs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Mathematics",
          "orig": "en:Mathematics",
          "parents": [
            "Formal sciences",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Symbols",
          "orig": "en:Symbols",
          "parents": [
            "Letters, symbols, and punctuation",
            "Orthography",
            "Writing",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "the symbol ±, meaning \"plus or minus\", used to indicate the precision of an approximation (as in \"The result is 10 ± 0.3\", meaning the result is anywhere in the inclusive range from 9.7 to 10.3), or as a convenient shorthand for a quantity with two possible values of opposing sign and identical magnitude (as in \"The roots of the equation x²-4=0 are ±2\")."
      ],
      "id": "en-plus-minus_sign-en-noun-6kyQSb7K",
      "links": [
        [
          "mathematics",
          "mathematics"
        ],
        [
          "symbol",
          "symbol"
        ],
        [
          "±",
          "±"
        ],
        [
          "approximation",
          "approximation"
        ],
        [
          "magnitude",
          "magnitude"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(mathematics) the symbol ±, meaning \"plus or minus\", used to indicate the precision of an approximation (as in \"The result is 10 ± 0.3\", meaning the result is anywhere in the inclusive range from 9.7 to 10.3), or as a convenient shorthand for a quantity with two possible values of opposing sign and identical magnitude (as in \"The roots of the equation x²-4=0 are ±2\")."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "minus-plus sign"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "mathematics",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "plus-minus sign"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "plus-minus sign"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plus-minus signs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "plus-minus sign (plural plus-minus signs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "minus-plus sign"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "en:Mathematics",
        "en:Symbols"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "the symbol ±, meaning \"plus or minus\", used to indicate the precision of an approximation (as in \"The result is 10 ± 0.3\", meaning the result is anywhere in the inclusive range from 9.7 to 10.3), or as a convenient shorthand for a quantity with two possible values of opposing sign and identical magnitude (as in \"The roots of the equation x²-4=0 are ±2\")."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "mathematics",
          "mathematics"
        ],
        [
          "symbol",
          "symbol"
        ],
        [
          "±",
          "±"
        ],
        [
          "approximation",
          "approximation"
        ],
        [
          "magnitude",
          "magnitude"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(mathematics) the symbol ±, meaning \"plus or minus\", used to indicate the precision of an approximation (as in \"The result is 10 ± 0.3\", meaning the result is anywhere in the inclusive range from 9.7 to 10.3), or as a convenient shorthand for a quantity with two possible values of opposing sign and identical magnitude (as in \"The roots of the equation x²-4=0 are ±2\")."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "mathematics",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "plus-minus sign"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "plus-minus sign"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.