What's a good word to describe the operation of taking the negative of a number?
For example, given x = 5, obtain -x = -5, and given y = -2, obtain -y = 2.
Is there a word for this?
I was thinking about "negation" or "negate". But according to Merriam-Webster, it means:
to cause (something) to not be effective
grammar : to make (a word or phrase) negative
It doesn't seem to cover "to make a number negative".
Best Answer
Negation absolutely is is the correct term to use here: it is a synonym of "additive inverse", as noted in the second sentence of its Wikipedia article. This is a well-defined mathematical operation which would absolutely be understood in a numeric context, and is used constantly in math classes from grade school through Master's programs; the dictionary just wasn't providing the domain-specific definition of the term.