What Are the Parts of an Addition Sentence?

By Staff WriterLast Updated April 08, 2020

An addition sentence contains an addend, or number to be added, followed by an addition sign, another addend, an equal sign and the sum. For example, a typical addition sentence is 9 + 5 = 14.

An addition sentence is not limited to two addends. Multiple numbers can be added together if required. The sentence may also be written with the sum first, but this is not typical. For instance, 17 = 10 + 7 is a valid addition sentence. Also, addition follows the commutative property, so the order of addends does not matter; 6 + 8 = 14 is the same as 8 + 6 = 14.