Plus and minus signs in the context of "The Whetstone of Witte"

In mathematics, a negative number is the opposite of a positive real number. Equivalently, a negative number is a real number that is less than zero. Negative numbers are often used to represent the magnitude of a loss or deficiency. A debt that is owed may be thought of as a negative asset. If a quantity, such as the charge on an electron, may have either of two opposite senses, then one may choose to distinguish between those senses—perhaps arbitrarily—as positive and negative. Negative numbers are used to describe values on a scale that goes below zero, such as the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales for temperature. The laws of arithmetic for negative numbers ensure that the common-sense idea of an opposite is reflected in arithmetic. For example, −‍(−3) = 3 because the opposite of an opposite is the original value.

Negative numbers are usually written with a minus sign in front. For example, −3 represents a negative quantity with a magnitude of three, and is pronounced and read as "minus three" or "negative three". Conversely, a number that is greater than zero is called positive; zero is usually (but not always) thought of as neither positive nor negative. The positivity of a number may be emphasized by placing a plus sign before it, e.g. +3. In general, the negativity or positivity of a number is referred to as its sign.

In mathematics, the sign of a real number is its property of being either positive, negative, or 0. Depending on local conventions, zero may be considered as having its own unique sign, having no sign, or having both positive and negative sign. In some contexts, it makes sense to distinguish between a positive and a negative zero.

In mathematics and physics, the phrase "change of sign" is associated with exchanging an object for its additive inverse (multiplication with −1, negation), an operation which is not restricted to real numbers. It applies among other objects to vectors, matrices, and complex numbers, which are not prescribed to be only either positive, negative, or zero.