totality

American  

[toh-tal-i-tee] / toʊˈtæl ɪ ti /

noun

totalities plural

1. something that is total or constitutes a total; the total amount; a whole.

2. the state of being total; entirety.

3. Astronomy. total obscuration in an eclipse.

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totality British  

/ təʊˈtælɪtɪ /

noun

1. the whole amount

2. the state of being total

3. the state or period of an eclipse when light from the eclipsed body is totally obscured

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• totalities
  plural

Etymology

Origin of totality

First recorded in 1590–1600; total + -ity

Example Sentences

While the UK will only see a partial eclipse, observers in Greenland, Iceland, northern Spain and parts of the Arctic Ocean will experience totality.

From BBC • Jun. 6, 2026

"It is sometimes a challenge to be able to prevent any kind of incident in totality," Dhaliwal added.

From Barron's • May 18, 2026

The transformer does all of that work repeatedly against a vast “context,” or the totality of the information a model can handle at one time in working memory.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026

“When you actually look at the totality of what’s being put forward, we are seeing a total gutting of a resource base,” she told NOTUS.

From Slate • May 2, 2026

Taken individually, none of the twenty-five Norte Chico cities rivaled Sumer’s cities in size, but the totality was bigger than Sumer.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann