a paltry sum

a Determinative

— A is used when the following word could be any of a certain type. Compare "A book I saw on the shelf" and "The book I gave you yesterday".

a Noun

— A is the first letter of the alphabet. The letter "a" comes before "b". — In some schools, an A is a very high grade. Ron got an A on his earth science test.

paltry

— adjective (= trifling) not worth considering he considered the prize too paltry for the lives it must cost piffling efforts a trifling matter — adjective (= measly, miserable) contemptibly small in amount a measly tip the company donated a miserable $100 for flood relief a paltry wage almost depleted his miserable store of dried beans

sum Noun

— A sum is an amount of money, usually a large amount. The company had been spending large sums on publicity and advertising. It allows the corporation to pay its workers a lump sum of up to £37,000 on leaving. — The sum is the total of adding or subtracting several numbers or amounts. The total output doesn't equal the sum of the inputs because the system is not 100% efficient. The sum of the three numbers will always equal 10.

sum Verb

— If you sum up, you conclude or bring together the main points. She sums up the situation by saying that the new family is never the same as the biological family.