Who invented addition symbol?
Chloe Ramirez
Updated on January 04, 2026
Robert Recorde, the designer of the equals sign, introduced plus and minus to Britain in 1557 in The Whetstone of Witte: "There be other 2 signes in often use of which the first is made thus + and betokeneth more: the other is thus made – and betokeneth lesse."
Who invented the symbol (+) for addition and in which year was it invented?
The first appearance of + and – in English was in the 1551 book on algebra The Whetstone of Witte by the Oxford mathematician Robert Recorde, who also introduced the equal sign as the rather longer than today's symbol "═." In describing the plus and minus signs Recorde wrote: "There be other 2 signes in often use of ...Where did the addition symbol come from?
The origins of + and – can be traced back to the 14th and 15th centuries. The + symbol is derived from the Latin word “Et” meaning “And”. Nicole Oresme, a French philosopher used the symbol + as a shorthand version of Et in his work, the Algorismus Proportionum.Who invented multiplication sign?
Oughtred introduced the multiplication sign (X) and a vertical line (|) to separate whole numbers from decimals. A table of powers: q means squared, c means cubed, and qqc represents the 7th power. Later in the seventeenth century, Descartes popularized the use of superscript whole number exponents in his Geometry.Who invented divide sign?
In mathematicsThe form of the obelus as a horizontal line with a dot above and a dot below, ÷, was first used as a symbol for division by the Swiss mathematician Johann Rahn in his book Teutsche Algebra in 1659. This gave rise to the modern mathematical symbol ÷, used in anglophone countries as a division sign.