tally

[ tal-ee ]
See synonyms for: tallytallied on Thesaurus.com

noun,plural tal·lies.
  1. an account or reckoning; a record of debit and credit, of the score of a game, or the like.

  2. Also called tally stick . a stick of wood with notches cut to indicate the amount of a debt or payment, often split lengthwise across the notches, the debtor retaining one piece and the creditor the other.

  1. anything on which a score or account is kept.

  2. a notch or mark made on or in a tally.

  3. a number or group of items recorded.

  4. a mark made to register a certain number of items, as four consecutive vertical lines with a diagonal line through them to indicate a group of five.

  5. a number of objects serving as a unit of computation.

  6. a ticket, label, or mark used as a means of identification, classification, etc.

  7. anything corresponding to another thing as a counterpart or duplicate.

verb (used with object),tal·lied, tal·ly·ing.
  1. to mark or enter on a tally; register; record.

  2. to count or reckon up.

  1. to furnish with a tally or identifying label.

  2. to cause to correspond or agree.

verb (used without object),tal·lied, tal·ly·ing.
  1. to correspond, as one part of a tally with the other; accord or agree: Does his story tally with hers?

  2. to score a point or make a goal, as in a game.

Origin of tally

1
1275–1325; (noun) Middle English taly<Medieval Latin talia, variant of Latin tālea rod, cutting, literally, heel-piece, derivative of tālus heel; (v.) late Middle English talyen, derivative of the noun

Other words for tally

Other words from tally

  • tal·li·er, noun
  • re·tal·ly, noun, plural re·tal·lies, verb, re·tal·lied, re·tal·ly·ing.
  • un·tal·lied, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use tally in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for tally

tally

/ (ˈtælɪ) /


verb-lies, -lying or -lied
  1. (intr) to correspond one with the other: the two stories don't tally

  2. (tr) to supply with an identifying tag

  1. (intr) to keep score

  2. (tr) obsolete to record or mark

nounplural -lies
  1. any record of debit, credit, the score in a game, etc

  2. a ticket, label, or mark, used as a means of identification, classification, etc

  1. a counterpart or duplicate of something, such as the counterfoil of a cheque

  2. a stick used (esp formerly) as a record of the amount of a debt according to the notches cut in it

  3. a notch or mark cut in or made on such a stick

  4. a mark or number of marks used to represent a certain number in counting

  5. Australian and NZ the total number of sheep shorn by one shearer in a specified period of time

Origin of tally

1
C15: from Medieval Latin tālea, from Latin: a stick; related to Latin tālus heel

Derived forms of tally

  • tallier, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012