Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Addition for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is "addition" — a noun, pronounced /əˈdɪʃən/, with the stress on "di".
Narrator: Addition is the act of adding, or the thing added — the arithmetic operation, the new room on a house, the new baby in a family.
Narrator: In plain English, an addition is whatever joins what was already there.
Narrator: It comes from the Latin "addere" — to give to — from "ad-", to, and "dare", to give: an addition is literally something given to what exists.
Narrator: Mathematics claimed it early — addition is the first of the four operations, and the plus sign arrived in print in 1489.
Narrator: Everyday English widened it warmly — "a welcome addition to the team", "the newest addition to the family": people, not just numbers.
Narrator: Its most useful phrase is "in addition to" — the polite connector meaning as well as, beloved of formal writing.
Narrator: In tone it is neutral and versatile — equally at home in a maths lesson, an estate agent's listing, and a birth announcement.
Narrator: So remember: an addition is what's given to what's already there — sums, rooms, and family members alike.
Speaker A: Birth announcement confusion — my cousin texted "delighted to announce the newest addition", and my uncle replied asking about the conservatory!
Speaker B: A perfectly reasonable misreading! Addition covers both — the thing added to a family AND the thing added to a house. Same word, wildly different congratulations required.
Speaker A: So it's just whatever joins what's already there?
Speaker B: Exactly, and the root is lovely — Latin "addere", from "ad-" plus "dare", to give. An addition is something GIVEN to what exists. Babies and conservatories both qualify.
Speaker A: And the maths sense is the oldest?
Speaker B: The most formal one, certainly — addition is the first of the four operations, and the plus sign appeared in print back in 1489. But English happily widened it to teams, houses, and nurseries.
Speaker A: Example sentences to clarify things for my uncle?
Speaker B: "She's a wonderful addition to the team"; "the addition doubled the kitchen space"; "check your addition — the total's wrong" — colleagues, extensions, and arithmetic.
Speaker A: And "in addition to" — that's the phrase everyone writes in emails?
Speaker B: The formal connector meaning "as well as". Useful, but watch the grammar trap: "in addition to running the shop, she teaches" — the subject must match. "In addition to the shop, she teaches" is fine too, but mixing them mid-sentence trips people constantly.
Speaker A: Common mistakes with the word itself?
Speaker B: The great homophone hazard — ADDITION versus EDITION! One adds, the other publishes. "The new edition of the dictionary" is a printing; "the new addition to the dictionary" is a word. Autocorrect will not save you.
Speaker A: Addition adds, edition prints — memorised! Close relatives?
Speaker B: "Extension" is the physical builder's word — it stretches something existing; "supplement" adds to complete something lacking; "increment" is the small measured addition, beloved of pay rises and programmers. "Addition" is the warm general one — which is why babies get it and conservatories borrow it!
Speaker B: Let's use "addition" in AI prompts — a clean word for changes that add without disturbing what already works.
Speaker A: So addition in a prompt means extend, don't rewrite?
Speaker B: Exactly, and that framing saves enormous pain. For features, you'd write:
Prompt: Build the export feature as a pure addition to my reports page — a new button and download function only, with no changes to the existing report code. Add beside, never inside, so today's working screen keeps working tomorrow.
Speaker B: "Addition" tells the AI to leave existing code alone — the single most useful instruction in day-to-day development.
Speaker A: Add beside, never inside — that's memorable! Database work?
Speaker B: The safe-migration prompt:
Prompt: Write a migration that is addition only — new columns with sensible defaults and new indexes, nothing renamed or dropped. Old rows must stay valid, so the deploy can roll back without losing a single record.
Speaker A: Rollback-safe by construction! What about design systems?
Speaker B: The component prompt:
Prompt: Add a toast notification component to my design system as an addition — new file, new tokens reused from the existing palette, and no edits to current components. One new part, zero side effects, so nothing else needs retesting.
Speaker A: What about tracking changes over time?
Speaker B: The changelog prompt:
Prompt: Group my release notes into additions, changes, and fixes — additions listed first with one plain sentence each explaining what a user can now do. New things celebrated clearly, so every release feels like a gift, not a patch.
Speaker A: One more — API design?
Speaker B: The compatibility prompt:
Prompt: Extend my API by addition only — new optional fields and new endpoints, with every existing response shape untouched. Old clients must keep working, so nobody's app breaks because ours improved.
Speaker A: So "addition" protects the screen, the migration, the design system, the changelog, and the API.
Speaker B: Exactly — the given-to word: ask for additions, and improvement stops costing you breakage.
Addition — meaning in Arabic & definition More A courses GL Dictionary