What number is 5 less than 2?

When solving a question like "What number is 5 less than 2?", take a close look at what it is really asking.

You have the number 2 and you are looking for a number that is 5 less than 2. In other words, if you have 2 and take away 5, then how many do you have?

You guessed it! This is a subtraction problem. 2 is the minuend and 5 is subtrahend and the answer we are looking for is the difference.

Therefore, to solve "What number is 5 less than 2?", you subtract 5 from 2 like so:

2 - 5 = -3

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