What is "addition"

Addition \Ad*di"tion\, n. [F. addition, L. additio, fr. addere to add.]

1. The act of adding two or more things together; -- opposed to subtraction or diminution. ``This endless addition or addibility of numbers.''
   --Locke.

2. Anything added; increase; augmentation; as, a piazza is an addition to a building.

3. (Math.) That part of arithmetic which treats of adding numbers.

4. (Mus.) A dot at the right side of a note as an indication that its sound is to be lengthened one half. [R.]

5. (Law) A title annexed to a man's name, to identify him more precisely; as, John Doe, Esq.; Richard Roe, Gent.; Robert Dale, Mason; Thomas Way, of New York; a mark of distinction; a title.

6. (Her.) Something added to a coat of arms, as a mark of honor; -- opposed to abatement.

   Vector addition (Geom.), that kind of addition of two lines, or vectors, AB and BC, by which their sum is regarded as the line, or vector, AC.

   Syn: Increase; accession; augmentation; appendage; adjunct.

late 14c., "action of adding numbers;" c.1400, "that which is added," from Old French adition "increase, augmentation" (13c.), from Latin additionem (nominative additio) "an adding to, addition," noun of action from past participle stem of addere (see add). Phrase in addition to "also" is from 1680s.

n. 1 (context uncountable English) The act of adding anything. 2 Anything that is added. 3 (context uncountable English) The arithmetic operation of adding. 4 (context music English) A dot at the right side of a note as an indication that its sound is to be lengthened one half. 5 (context legal English) A title annexed to a person's name to identify him or her more precisely, as in "John Doe, '''Esq'''.", "Robert Dale, '''Mason'''", "Thomas Way, '''of New York'''". 6 (context heraldry English) Something added to a coat of arms, as a mark of honour; opposed to (term abatement English).

1. n. a component that is added to something to improve it; "the addition of a bathroom was a major improvement"; "the addition of cinammon improved the flavor" [syn: add-on, improver]

2. the act of adding one thing to another; "the addition of flowers created a pleasing effect"; "the addition of a leap day every four years" [ant: subtraction]

3. a quantity that is added; "there was an addition to property taxes this year"; "they recorded the cattle's gain in weight over a period of weeks" [syn: increase, gain]

4. something added to what you already have; "the librarian shelved the new accessions"; "he was a new addition to the staff" [syn: accession]

5. a suburban area laid out in streets and lots for a future residential area

6. the arithmetic operation of summing; calculating the sum of two or more numbers; "the summation of four and three gives seven"; "four plus three equals seven" [syn: summation, plus]

Addition (often signified by the plus symbol "+") is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, with the others being subtraction, multiplication and division. The addition of two whole numbers is the total amount of those quantities combined. For example, in the picture on the right, there is a combination of three apples and two apples together, making a total of five apples. This observation is equivalent to the mathematical expression "3 + 2 = 5" i.e., "3 add 2 is equal to 5".

Besides counting fruits, addition can also represent combining other physical objects. Using systematic generalizations, addition can also be defined on more abstract quantities, such as integers, rational numbers, real numbers and complex numbers and other abstract objects such as vectors and matrices.

In arithmetic, rules for addition involving fractions and negative numbers have been devised amongst others. In algebra, addition is studied more abstractly.

Addition has several important properties. It is commutative, meaning that order does not matter, and it is associative, meaning that when one adds more than two numbers, the order in which addition is performed does not matter (see Summation). Repeated addition of 1 is the same as counting; addition of 0 does not change a number. Addition also obeys predictable rules concerning related operations such as subtraction and multiplication.

Performing addition is one of the simplest numerical tasks. Addition of very small numbers is accessible to toddlers; the most basic task, 1 + 1, can be performed by infants as young as five months and even some non-human animals. In primary education, students are taught to add numbers in the decimal system, starting with single digits and progressively tackling more difficult problems. Mechanical aids range from the ancient abacus to the modern computer, where research on the most efficient implementations of addition continues to this day.

Addition is the mathematical process of putting things together.

Addition may also refer to:

• Addition (logic), a simple logic argument form
• Addition reaction, a chemical reaction combining molecules
• Addition (rhetoric), one of the four fundamental rhetorical operations
• "Addition", a song by No Devotion from Permanence