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PlainSpell

sum

/sʌm/noun, verb, determiner, pronoun

sum is spelled S-U-M: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 4,015th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sum means “A quantity obtained by addition or aggregation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sum is sums or sumy.

How many letters and syllables are in sum?

Letters3: S-U-M
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing22 times per million words; the 4,015th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is sum?

Sum appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 4,015th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce sum?

  • US /sʌm/
  • /sʊm/

Sum has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sum.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with sum

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

some vs sum0 B

Sounds like: some (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with sum?

8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sum from its last stressed vowel (/ʌm/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of sum

  • sums plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • summing participle, present
  • summed participle, past
  • sumy plural
  • som
  • soum
  • somon
  • sumon
  • sumu

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sum mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A quantity obtained by addition or aggregation.

    The sum of 3 and 4 is 7.

  2. 2

    An arithmetic computation, especially one posed to a student as an exercise (not necessarily limited to addition).

    We're learning about division, and the sums are tricky.

  3. 3

    A quantity of money.

    a tidy sum

  4. 4

    A summary; the principal points or thoughts when viewed together; the substance.

    This is the sum of all the evidence in the case.

  5. 5

    A central idea or point; gist.

  6. 6

    rareThe utmost degree; the greatest or most perfect realization (of some concept).

  7. 7

    obsoleteAn old English measure of corn equal to the quarter.

  8. 8

    The basic unit of money in Kyrgyzstan.

  9. 9

    The basic unit of money in Uzbekistan.

  10. 10

    A type of administrative district used in China, Mongolia, and Russia. In Mongolia, a sum is smaller than a province. In China, it is only used in Inner Mongolia, where it is equivalent to a township.

verb

  1. 1

    To add together.

  2. 2

    To give a summary of.

determiner

  1. 1

    Eye dialect spelling of some.

pronoun

  1. 1

    Pronunciation spelling of something.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sum in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsomme (quantity obtained by addition or aggregation), calcul (arithmetic problem), additionner (to add together)
GermanSumme (quantity obtained by addition or aggregation), summieren (to add together)
Portuguesesoma (quantity obtained by addition or aggregation), adição (arithmetic problem), somar (to add together), quantia (quantity of money)
Spanishsuma, adición (quantity obtained by addition or aggregation), sumar (to add together), cantidad (quantity of money)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does sum come from?

From Middle English summe, from Old French summe, from Latin summa (“highest point; sum”), from summus (“highest”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sum