1. a comprehensive treatise or summary of a particular field of knowledge
Usage: academic; formal

Examples

• Thomas Aquinas wrote his famous Summa Theologica in the 13th century.
• The professor assigned a summa on medieval philosophy for the graduate seminar.
• Her doctoral dissertation served as a summa of current research in the field.
• The ancient scholars compiled a summa of mathematical knowledge.
• This work represents a summa of everything known about the subject at that time.