i Register
In some senses, minus is marked as informal, obsolete, colloquial. Watch for register when choosing this word.
prep
Made less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity).
Seven minus two is five.
Without; deprived of.
I walked out minus my coat.
noun
The minus sign (−).
On the third day a Master Barnard brings me up a slate full of plusses, minusses, x, y, z’s, and other letters of the alphabet, in a most amiable algebraical confusion.
A negative quantity.
A downside or disadvantage.
He valued Roderick’s friendship with the highest value he put on anything nowadays. Over the years they had assessed each other’s plusses and minusses and settled for the difference.
As with LCR tout court the question is less to do with the plusses and minusses of the individual ideologies in themselves than in their relationship with their opposite numbers, in this case of Reason with Emotion.
adj
Being a negative quantity; pertaining to a deficit or reduction.
a minus number
That is below zero by (a specified amount) on a scale.
minus seven degrees
Worse off than before; out of pocket.
The races being finished, we left Epsom for London, Mordaunt's natural vile temper not being at all improved by being three hundred pounds minus by the week's speculation […] .
Ranking just below (a designated rating).
He got a grade of B minus for his essay.