the sum of

idiom

: an amount of (money)

I paid the sum of $500.

: the result of (adding two or more numbers together)

The sum of 5 and 7 is 12

: all there is of : the whole amount of

Working odd summer jobs has been the sum of my experience so far.

Examples of the sum of in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web It is built on the premise that history is the sum of infinite numbers of small decisions that gradually coalesce into profound change — decisions like the one Mr. Hess made to integrate the Parisian. —

Rick Rojas, New York Times, 9 May 2024 Sequenced together in Ghosts of the West Vol. 1, however, these songs become more than the sum of their parts: a feat of storytelling that echoes Willie Nelson and Robert Earl Keen. —

Stephen Deusner, SPIN, 8 May 2024 The new Streamliner Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton effortlessly rises above the sum of its parts. —

Blake Buettner, Robb Report, 8 May 2024 But the show ends up far less than the sum of its parts, an oddly generic and muted take on a larger-than-life American story. —

Alison Herman, Variety, 2 May 2024 Mismanaged waste is the sum of material that is discarded as litter or inadequately disposed. —

Kurt Snibbe, Orange County Register, 18 Apr. 2024 This line passes through the middle of some slice of the pizza: The number of the slice is the sum of the two numbers. —

Anil Ananthaswamy, Quanta Magazine, 12 Apr. 2024 For us, clearly the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. —

Hadley Meares, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Apr. 2024 Cyber insurance provides financial protection, while MSPs can contribute to risk reduction, active protection and incident prevention—a combination greater than the sum of its parts. —

Dor Eisner, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'the sum of.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.