A minus sign is the mathematical symbol that looks like a short horizontal line (−) and tells you to subtract one number from another. When you see 8 − 3, the minus sign means you're taking 3 away from 8 to get 5.

The minus sign appears in different contexts. In a subtraction problem like 15 − 7, it shows you're removing or taking away. On a number line, it helps you move backward: starting at 10 and moving 4 spaces in the negative direction lands you at 6. The symbol also marks negative numbers, like −5, which means five below zero. On a winter morning when the thermometer reads −10 degrees, that minus sign warns you it's seriously cold outside.

You'll see minus signs everywhere: in your math homework, on thermometers, in bank statements (showing money spent), and in elevators (marking basement floors as −1, −2, and so on). Scientists use minus signs when measuring depths below sea level or tracking debts.

The opposite of a minus sign is a plus sign (+), which tells you to add instead of subtract. Together, these two symbols help us describe almost any change in quantity, whether we're gaining or losing, rising or falling, adding or taking away.