How to spell subtract

hear itsub·tract/səb'trækt/verbHidden vowels

What it means: To take away a number from another.

In a sentence: If you have ten apples and subtract two, how many apples are left?

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as substract or subtratc.

Same family: subtraction, subtracting, subtracted, attract, contract. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Subtract comes from Latin 'subtrahere', meaning 'to draw from below' or 'take away'. It shares the root 'tract' with words like 'attract' and 'contract', all connected to the idea of pulling or drawing something.

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

tractor · extract · retract · distract · subscription

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